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

Mariana Sanchez, Eduardo Romano, Christyl Dawson, Hui Huang, Alicia Sneij, Elena Cyrus, Patria Rojas, Miguel Ángel Cano, Judith Brook and Mario De La Rosa
Additional contact information
Mariana Sanchez: Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA), Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th Street, AHC5-421, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Eduardo Romano: Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, 11720 Beltsville Drive Suite 900, Calverton, MD 20705-3111, USA
Christyl Dawson: Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA), Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th Street, AHC5-421, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Hui Huang: Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA), Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th Street, AHC5-421, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Alicia Sneij: Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA), Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th Street, AHC5-421, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Elena Cyrus: Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA), Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th Street, AHC5-421, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Patria Rojas: Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA), Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th Street, AHC5-421, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Miguel Ángel Cano: Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA), Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th Street, AHC5-421, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Judith Brook: New York University School of Medicine, NYU Langone Medical Center 215 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA
Mario De La Rosa: Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA), Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th Street, AHC5-421, Miami, FL 33199, USA

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-15

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.

Keywords: drinking and driving; alcohol; Latino/a immigrants; acculturation stress; neighborhoods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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