Relations Between Acculturation And Alcohol Use Among International Students

Authors

Ananth Kanaparthi, Florida International UniversityFollow

Document Type

Dissertation

Major/Program

Psychology

First Advisor's Name

Jonathan G. Tubman

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Marilyn J. Montgomery

Third Advisor's Name

Wendy K. Silverman

Fourth Advisor's Name

Mark Macgowan

Fifth Advisor's Name

William Kurtines

Keywords

ACCULTURATION, ALCOHOL USE, INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS, SOCIAL SUPPORT

Date of Defense

10-26-2009

Abstract

In the current study, 226 international students attending Florida International University responded to an Web-based questionnaire that assessed self-reported scores for: acculturation, acculturative stress, alcohol use patterns, perceived peer alcohol use, and perceived injunctive social norms for alcohol use. The purpose of the study was to evaluate structural relations among this set of variables using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) via AMOS 17.0. The results of SEM analyses documented acceptable fit of a model which hypothesized that relations between acculturation and alcohol use variables are mediated partially by acculturative stress, perceived peer alcohol use, and perceived injunctive social norms. While significant path coefficients were documented for paths between (a) acculturation and acculturative stress and (b) acculturative stress and alcohol use, the coefficients had negative signs, contrary to existing studies investigating these relations among immigrant youth. While paths between (a) perceived peer alcohol use or (b) perceived injunctive social norms and participants’ alcohol use were significant, path coefficients between acculturation and either (a) perceived peer alcohol use or (b) perceived injunctive social norms were not statistically significant. In addition, multiple-group comparisons suggested that social support had a significant moderating influence on several significant paths in the structural model. Specifically, international students reporting higher social support reported lower scores for acculturative stress and alcohol use, in contrast to their counterparts who reported lower scores for social support.

Identifier

FI09120812

Recommended Citation

Kanaparthi, Ananth, "Relations Between Acculturation And Alcohol Use Among International Students" (2009). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 133.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/133