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Biomedical subjects

J A Neff

Publications and source records attributed to J A Neff.

43 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Life stressors, drinking patterns, and depressive symptomatology: ethnicity and stress-buffer effects of alcohol.

This paper seeks to extend previous research on stress buffer effects of alcohol use using data from a tri-ethnic community sample of 1,784 respondents. Differences in buffer effects between Anglos, Blacks, and Mexican Americans are examined to explore possible racial/ethnic variation in the role or function of alcohol vis-à-vis life stress and depressive symptoms. Both acute life events and chronic financial stress are examined to clarify the conditions under which buffer effects are most and least salient in these groups. The findings indicate that alcohol buffer effects are most pronounced among males with regard to life event stress and depression. Ethnic differences in buffer effects were suggested among males for life events, though statistical controls for demographic factors, fatalism, and religiosity accounted for these differences. The implications of these findings are examined, and the paper generally highlights the need to view alcohol use and alcohol buffer effects in the context of more general coping orientations.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Adult children of alcoholic or mentally ill parents: alcohol consumption and psychological distress in a tri-ethnic community study.

Data from a racially and ethnically heterogeneous random community sample of 1,784 adults were used to compare effects of reported parental alcoholism, parental mental illness, both alcoholism and mental illness, or no parental pathology. No parental history differences were observed among males with regard to psychological distress (depression, anxiety, and somatization) or drinking patterns (drinking, quantity, frequency, or total weekly consumption). Among females, the parental-mental-illness-only group consistently reported more problems than did the no-pathology group on depression, anxiety, somatization, and drinking quantity, even after statistical controls for demographic factors, social desirability, and possible coping resources such as fatalism, religiosity, and self-esteem. While parental alcoholism appeared to have little impact upon psychological distress dimensions relative to the no pathology group, further analyses conducted separately for current drinkers vs. nondrinkers indicated consistently lower levels of depression, anxiety, and somatization among male nondrinkers than drinkers from families involving parental alcoholism. The specificity of these effects to males reporting parental alcoholism may reflect either the resilience of male Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOAs) who do not drink and/or the role of drinking as a mediator of parental alcoholism. Possible reasons for the general lack of parental alcoholism and racial/ethnic differences are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Solitary drinking, social isolation, and escape drinking motives as predictors of high quantity drinking, among Anglo, African American and Mexican American males.

This paper addresses the phenomenon of 'solitary drinking', considering whether Anglo, African American and Mexican American male regular drinkers differ in the propensity to drink in solitary contexts and whether such differences may help to explain observed ethnic variation in patterns of heavy drinking. Further, the paper considers whether apparent relationships between solitary drinking and drinking patterns are explained by individual personality characteristics such as social isolation and/or by endorsement of 'escape drinking' motives. Data were analysed from a random community sample of 481 adult male regular drinkers in San Antonio, Texas, USA. Contingency table and logistic regression analyses indicated that initially observed ethnic differences in high quantity and high maximum drinking were largely eliminated by controls for education, escape motives and solitary drinking. Ethnic variation in the role of solitary drinking was suggested as well, with solitary drinking more strongly related to high quantity consumption, in particular, among African Americans than among Mexican Americans. The nature of the observed interactions suggests that fundamental differences between Anglos and African Americans in the roles of solitary drinking and escape drinking motives may underlie seemingly similar frequent, lower quantity drinking patterns in these groups that appear more frequently than among Mexican American males.

Adult↗