141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

279628
Does social support buffer the relationship between stressors and alcohol use?: Findings from immigrant sexual minority latinos in North Carolina

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Paul A. Gilbert, MSPH , Department of Health Education, University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC
Clare Barrington, PhD, MPH , Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Krista Perreira, PhD , Public Policy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Ted Mouw, PhD , University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Eugenia Eng, MPH, DrPH , Department of Health Behavior, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Scott Rhodes, PhD, MPH, CHES , Div of Public Health Sciences/Dept of Social Sciences & Health Policy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC
Background: Little is known about alcohol use among sexual minority Latinos, a sub-group including gay men, men who have sex with men who do not self-identify as gay, and gender variant or transgender persons. Complementing qualitative research that found drinking was a fundamentally social activity in this population, we tested whether social support buffered associations between social stressors and drinking.

Methods: We recruited 190 immigrant sexual minority Latinos via Respondent-Driven Sampling for psychosocial and behavioral assessments in Spanish or English. We tested whether associations between social stressors and drinking frequency (4-level categorical variable) and binge drinking (count of binge episodes in the past 30 days) varied by level of social support.

Results: English use was positively associated with binge drinking, but social support attenuated the relationship. Contrary to expectations, social support exacerbated the positive association between social comfort with gay men and weekly drinking. In addition, we identified 2 antagonistic interactions. First, personal comfort with sexual orientation was negatively associated with yearly drinking at low social support but at high social support the association was positive. Second, ethnic discrimination was positively associated with binge drinking at low social support but at high social support the association was negative.

Conclusions: We found mixed evidence that social support buffers the relationship between stressors and drinking among sexual minority Latinos. Due to the social patterning of alcohol use, social support may increase odds of some drinking. The antagonistic interactions suggest a complex and poorly understood relationship between social stressors, social support, and drinking.

Learning Areas:
Diversity and culture
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Describe how social support modifies the relationships between 4 social stressors and alcohol use among immigrant sexual minority Latinos in North Carolina. Formulate potential explanations for the observed interactions. Discuss how the findings could be used for risk-reduction interventions.

Keywords: Alcohol Use, Gay Men

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I conceived the study and conducted the research as part of my dissertation project.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.