Newswise — Black sexual minority men and transgender women (sexual and gender minorities; SGM) consume more alcohol on average than people in the general population. The findings of an innovative study exploring links between certain social and personal influences and the drinking patterns of (predominantly) gay, bisexual, and queer Black men and transgender women found that reasons for higher alcohol use included exposure to current and past social networks characterized by frequent or problematic drinking. Higher alcohol use in this population is also linked to raised anxiety symptoms and Latine identity, the study found. Previous research has suggested that people with intersecting minoritized identities, such as being Black and gay, may be especially vulnerable to risky drinking. Black gay men report higher levels of heavy episodic drinking compared to Black heterosexual men, and Black people experience greater harms resulting from alcohol use than White people do. In sexually minoritized populations, these harms could potentially include a raised risk of HIV infection. Research on social influences contributing to alcohol use has focused on White and heterosexual populations, however. Furthermore, little is known about alcohol use among Black non-cisgender people. For the study in Alcohol: Clinical & Experimental Research, investigators evaluated whether certain factors were associated with more frequent or heavier drinking among Black SGM.
Researchers worked with 138 Black study participants aged 16–35 living in Chicago between 2018–19. The participants, all HIV-negative, filled out questionnaires on demographics, including their sexual identity, housing, and employment; their drinking in the past month; their depression and anxiety symptoms; and their exposure to problematic alcohol use in childhood. They also reported on the frequency of alcohol use of up to 5 close people in their social networks (confidants). The investigators used statistical analysis to explore associations between these and other factors and the outcome of participants’ reported drinking.
Participants were, on average, 25 years old. Ninety-three percent identified as gay, bisexual, or queer, and 16% as transgender. Almost 7 in 10 participants reported alcohol use in the past month—exceeding national norms for Black Americans and LGBTQ Americans—averaging 2 ½ drinks on each occasion. Most of the social network confidants they nominated were close family or friends, of whom 28% reportedly drank alcohol at least several times a week. Higher drinking among study participants was linked to their proportion of confidants who drank several times a week or more, having lived before age 18 with someone who consumed alcohol excessively, being both Black and Latine and experiencing higher anxiety symptoms.
The study highlights the interplay of personal and social factors affecting alcohol consumption among Black, sexually minoritized men and transgender people. Previous research has implicated structural racism and anti-LGBTQ policies in both anxiety and heavy drinking. Possibly, racism, homophobia, and transphobia intersect to generate a new form of discrimination, as perhaps experienced by Black Latine men; alternatively, the alcohol use in that population could reflect a cultural drinking norm. Social network influences may result from people’s attraction to those who are like them in some regard (e.g., in drinking behaviors); alternatively (or additionally), individuals’ alcohol use may come to resemble friends’ drinking over time. Interventions aimed at preventing or treating hazardous drinking in this population should address a range of personal and social influences, including social drinking norms, intersectional discrimination, and mental health. More research is needed to identify causal mechanisms of harmful alcohol use among Black sexual-minority men.
Social network alcohol use is associated with individual-level alcohol use among Black sexually minoritized men and gender expansive people: Findings from the Neighborhoods and Networks (N2) cohort study. C.-H. Shrader, D.T. Duncan, A. Santoro, E. Geng, H. Kranzler, D. Hasin, D. Shelley, B. Kutner, S.E. Sherman, Y.-T. Chen, M. Durrell, R. Eavou, H. Hillary, W. Goedel, J.A. Schneider, J.R. Knox.
ACER-24-6202.R1
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