# Alcohol Use among Latina/o Adolescents: The Role of Family and Peer Stressors

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN · 2020 · $42,406

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Individuals in Latina/o families who are new to the United States face major health disparities, including
physical and mental health problems specifically linked to alcohol use or abuse. This is particularly true for
second-generation adolescents and young adults who were born in the United States but have at least one
foreign-born parent. One out of every four individuals in the United States is a member of a newcomer family,
and Latinos are the largest immigrant group in the United States. Research suggests that Latina/o adolescents
and young adults in newcomer families face unique stressors such as family conflicts linked to acculturation.
However, research in this area is limited and scholars have highlighted a need for further investigation. In
addition to family stressors, peer risk factors, such as peer substance use, have also been connected to
alcohol use among adolescents and young adults. The proposed research aims to enhance our
understanding of unique family and peer stressors that may contribute to alcohol use and abuse
among Latina/o adolescents and young adults, particularly those in newcomer families.
Given the importance of family as a source of social support for family members in collectivistic cultures (e.g.,
Latino), family discord may be especially stressful for youth in these newcomer families. The proposed study
will examine family conflict with specific attention to the content of the conflict (i.e., general, cultural) and
whether conflict relates to adolescents’ alcohol use or abuse. For example, families often immigrate with the
explicit intention of creating better lives for children. This project proposes to examine family cultural conflicts
that go beyond acculturation. One illustration might be parent-child conflict in newcomer families due to
perceived child’s lack of respect for parental immigration sacrifices. New scales will be developed and tested to
measure such family cultural conflicts. Moreover, although families have a central socialization role in
adolescents’ lives, the peer context is of heightened importance during adolescence. Yet there is a gap in the
literature regarding how peer risk factors may exacerbate the effects of family stressors on alcohol use
and abuse; this gap will be addressed in this project, which will make use of large national panel data
(Monitoring The Future) combined with longitudinal survey data from a community-based sample.
Thus, the proposed research findings have the potential to inform more effective prevention and intervention
efforts aimed at decreasing the risk for alcohol use and abuse among Latina/o adolescents and young adults,
in particular the significant population of Latina/o families who have newly arrived in the United States.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9966704
- **Project number:** 5F31AA027158-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
- **Principal Investigator:** Farin Bakhtiari
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $42,406
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-06-03 → 2022-06-02

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9966704

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9966704, Alcohol Use among Latina/o Adolescents: The Role of Family and Peer Stressors (5F31AA027158-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9966704. Licensed CC0.

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