Attributional antecedents of alcohol use in American Indian and Euroamerican adolescents.

Abstract

American Indian and Euroamerican adolescents were compared in regard to the events that they saw as responsible for their alcohol use. American Indian males believed that heredity played a more important role in their use of alcohol than Euroamerican males. American Indian males also believed that fate was a more important influence on their use of alcohol than American Indian females and Euroamerican females and that environmental events (e.g., problems at home) were a less important influence than the three other groups. Euroamerican females saw distressing events as more responsible for their alcohol use than the American Indian females and Euroamerican males. Euroamerican females also saw themselves as more responsible for their alcohol use than the American Indian females and males and Euroamerican males. The treatment implications of these attributional differences in reasons for alcohol use are discussed, especially in regard to American Indian adolescent males.