Drinking and Driving among Recent Latino Immigrants: The Impact of Neighborhoods and Social Support

Authors

Mariana Sanchez, Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA), Florida International UniversityFollow
Eduardo Romano, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation
Christyl Dawson, Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA), Florida International UniversityFollow
Hui Huang, Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA), Florida International UniversityFollow
Alicia Sneij, Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA), Florida International UniversityFollow
Elena Cyrus, Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA), Florida International UniversityFollow
Patria Rojas, Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA), Florida International UniversityFollow
Miguel Angel Cano, Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA) and Department of Epidemiology, Florida International UniversityFollow
Judith Brook, New York University School of Medicine
Mario De La Rosa, Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA), Florida International UniversityFollow

Date of this Version

10-28-2016

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Latinos are disproportionately impacted by drinking and driving arrests and alcohol-related fatal crashes. Why, and how, these disparities occur remains unclear. The neighborhood environments that recent Latino immigrants encounter in their host communities can potentially influence health behaviors over time, including the propensity to engage in drinking and driving. This cross-sectional study utilizes a sample of 467 documented and undocumented adult recent Latino immigrants in the United States to answer the following research questions: (a) How do neighborhood-level factors, combined with social support, impact drinking and driving risk behaviors?; and (b) Does acculturative stress moderate the effects of those associations? Results indicate neighborhood-level factors (informal social control and social capital) have protective effects against drinking and driving risk behaviors via the mediating mechanism of social support. Acculturative stress moderated associations between neighborhood informal social control and social support, whereby the protective effects of informal social control on social support were not present for those immigrants with higher levels of acculturative stress. Our findings contribute to the limited knowledge of drinking and driving among Latino immigrants early in the immigration process and suggest that, in the process of developing prevention programs tailored to Latino immigrants, greater attention must be paid to neighborhood-level factors.

Identifier

FIDC1327

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Comments

Originally published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Recommended Citation

Sanchez, M.; Romano, E.; Dawson, C.; Huang, H.; Sneij, A.; Cyrus, E.; Rojas, P.; Cano, M.Á.; Brook, J.; De La Rosa, M. Drinking and Driving among Recent Latino Immigrants: The Impact of Neighborhoods and Social Support. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13, 1055.