Variation by race in children's alcohol expectancies

The purpose of this study was to further investigate a post-hoc finding on racial differences in children's alcohol expectancies. This was a secondary analysis of data originally collected for an evaluation study of longitudinal effects of a pre-school substance abuse prevention program in Cleveland, OH. Ss were second and third grade students who had received intervention services 3 years earlier and a matched comparison group who had not. The samples were combined for a total N = 69. Independent samples t-tests were used to assess differences in alcohol expectancy scores (on the Children's Alcohol-Related Expectancies (CARE) questionnaire). Data analysis revealed significantly higher CARE scores for black children than for whites. Most of the variance was in a sub-scale, which measures beliefs on how alcohol effects arousal and aggression. The finding that black children more often reported beliefs that alcohol intensifies feelings and makes fighting easier may suggest differential exposure to models of behavior. Alternatively, the finding may reflect aspects of alcohol marketing in African American communities.