Factors affecting alcohol consumption in black women. Part I.

The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate the extent to which a general model for understanding and predicting Black mental health problems accounts for the particular problem of alcohol consumption in an urban sample of 289 African American women. The general model consists of eight variables: life events, social support, religious orientation, internalized racialism, physical health problems, marital status, socioeconomic status, and developmental status. In Part I expected interrelationships among variables are presented, from which a structural equation model for understanding and predicting alcohol consumption is formulated. Methods for evaluating the model are described in Part II (International Journal of the Addictions, Vol. 25, No. 12).