Correlates of heavy drinking behaviors of Latino mothers and their adult daughters

Abstract

This study explored associations between adult Latina heavy drinking behaviors and potential psychosocial and demographic correlates. It used mother-daughter dyads and a cross-sectional design. Data were drawn from a community-based sample of 158 dyads of adult Latinas (n=316), age 18 years or older, recruited between 2004 and 2006. Bivariate and multivariate statistical methods, including logistic regression and pathway models, were used to analyze data. The study found that protective factors for heavy drinking behaviors for the mother included daughter's social support and mother's age, while for the daughter, they were mother's attachment and daughter's country of birth. Risk factors for daughter's heavy drinking behaviors were mother's social support and daughter's education. For both mother and daughter, chronic stress and drinking behavior associations were mediated by attachment and social support. Preventive interventions should target increasing levels of mother-daughter attachment and daughter's social support while decreasing stress levels for mothers and daughters.

FIGURE 1. Conceptual Framework for Heavy Drinking: Direct and Mediation Effect Models

Notes: • Social support was assumed to mediate associations between (a) drinking behaviors and attachment; (b) drinking behaviors and chronic stress. • Attachment was assumed to mediate associations between social support and chronic stress. Both attachment and social support were assumed to mediate associations between drinking behaviors and chronic stress. • Individual characteristics, such as age, education, employment, country of origin, and length of stay in the United States were omitted from the graph for the sake of simplifying the figure; they would have been placed at the left side of mother’s and daughter’s chronic stress.

FIGURE 2. Pathway Model for Heavy Drinking Behaviors: Direct and Mediation Effects