Alcohol Abuse: A Crucial Factor in the Social Problems of Negro Men
LUCY JANE KING M.D.1,
GEORGE E. MURPHY M.D.2,
LEE N. ROBINS PH.D.3, , and
HARRIET DARVISH 4
1 Assistant professor, department of psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo. 63110
2 Associate professor, department of psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo. 63110
3 Professor of sociology in psychiatry, department of psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo. 63110
4 Research assistant in sociology in psychiatry, department of psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo. 63110
In an interview study of 223 young urban Negro men, the authors found that increasing degrees of alcohol use were associated with increasing evidence of social deviance. Absence of the father from the childhood home and failure to complete high school strongly predict heavy drinking in adult life. Heavy drinking, with or without these negative factors, is equally predictive of social deviance. The authors conclude that alcohol abuse is not simply another symptom of social deviance but an important intervening variable in the ghetto cycle of broken home, delinquency, underemployment, and broken home.
