Prospective associations between youth assets, community factors and youth binge drinking by race/ethnicity and income: Results from the Youth Asset Study

The binge drinking rate for teenage current alcohol users is 61%. Factors that may protect youth from binge drinking behavior warrant study. The Youth Asset Study is a 5-wave longitudinal study involving 1111 youth (Mean age= 14.36 +1.59; 53% female; 26% Black, 31% Hispanic, 43% White; 50% with income <$5,000; 69% in two-parent families) and their parents. This study's purpose is to explore relationships among youth assets, race/ethnicity, federal poverty level (FPL) and youth binge drinking. Seventeen assets were summed and divided at the median to form a high- vs. low-asset variable. Assets at Waves 1-4 and neighborhood factors at Wave 1 were used to predict binge drinking at Waves 2–5 while controlling for several demographic variables. Data were analyzed using marginal logistic regression (reported Odd Ratios (ORs) significant at p <0.05). Results indicated that assets were prospectively associated with the absence of binge drinking for black, white and Hispanic youth, and for youth in the lowest- (0%-100% FPL), lower- (101%-200% FPL), and highest-income (300+% FPL) groups (ORs range= 1.8 to 2.9). Neighborhood analyses results indicated that youth in the highest-income group and with few parental concerns regarding neighborhood services were more likely to binge drink (OR=0.72). In contrast, among youth in the lowest-income group, those with few parental concerns regarding neighborhood crime/safety or who lived in neighborhoods in good physical condition were more likely to not binge drink (ORs= 1.10 and 1.54, respectively). These data suggest that assets and some community factors are protective of youth binge drinking.