Methodological Issues in Conducting Substance Abuse Research on Ethnic Minority Populations

Common methodological problems in substance abuse research in ethnic minority populations, and issues related to research design, are described. These issues include sampling, the failure to acknowledge sources of heterogeneity within ethnic groups, and the need for common definitions of constructs. It is suggetsed that attention to these issues will lead to improvements in the design and conduct of quantitative research on substance abuse. Improvements in methodology will result in advances in knowledge concerning substance abuse in ethnic minorities.