Alcohol Use in African American Adults: The Role of Personality and Racial Identity

Adisa Thomas Anderson

The purpose of this study was to explore the role that personality, racial identity, and drinking motives play in relation to alcohol use with African American adults. African Americans (N = 343) from across the United States responded to an online or paper survey that included a demographic questionnaire, the Big Five Inventory (Benet-Martinez & John, 1998), the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (Sellers, Rowley, Chavous, Shelton, & Smith, 1997), the Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised (Cooper, 1994), the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption Items (Bush, Kivlahan, McDonell, Mary, Fihn, et al., 2010), and the Short Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (Selzer, Melvin, Vinokur, & Rooijen, 1975). Support for Hypothesis 1, which tested a personality model relating the Big Five dimensions to drinking motives and behaviors, was limited. Although model fit was good, only Neuroticism predicted drinking motives (i.e., Coping and Conformity) and only Enhancement and Social drinking motives were related to drinking amount and drinking problems. Support for Hypothesis 2, which tested a racial identity model relating racial identity attitudes to drinking motives and behaviors, was also limited. Private Regard racial identity attitudes were inversely related to Coping and Conformity motives, as expected. Consistent with Hypothesis 3, the personality model had a slight edge over the racial identity model in predicting problem drinking behaviors. Hypothesis 4 was partially supported, as both Big Five traits and Racial Identity dimensions provided unique prediction of selected drinking motive(s) and behaviors. Hypothesis 5 was not supported, as the level of Private Regard attitudes did not moderate Neuroticism’s ability to predict the drinking-related variables. Hypothesis 6 was supported, as males averaged higher than females in both drinking amount and problem drinking. Hypothesis 7 was not clearly supported; for example, an unexpected finding was that females averaged higher than males for Coping drinking motives. Consistent with Hypothesis 8, higher education levels were related to lower problem drinking behaviors. Interpretation of the findings, applied and theoretical implications, and future directions are discussed. Overall, the study pointed to the value of integrating personality and racial identity variables in culturally-sensitive prediction of drinking behaviors and likely other outcomes as well.

Alcohol Use in African American Adults: The Role of Personality and Racial Identity

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