Racial Differences
There are some racial differences when it comes to youth alcohol use. The 2008
MTF report states that by the twelfth grade the annual presence of youth alcohol
consumption rates were highest among white student respondents with lower rates for
Hispanic and African American student respondents. The rates of heavy drinking among
twelfth graders was lowest among African American students (11%) followed by
Hispanic (22%) and white (30%) students. Among eighth grade student respondents,
heavy drinking rates were also lowest among African American students (6%) but white
students (8%) had lower rates than Hispanic (12%) student respondents. Along with the
lowest rates of heavy drinking, African American student respondents also had lowest
rates of prevalence of alcohol use in the 30-days prior and self-reporting of having been
drunk in the 30-days prior to the survey (Johnston, O’Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg,
2008). The MTF did not give any reasoning for the differences in alcohol use by various
racial categories, only that they asked respondents to identify themselves as White,
African American, or Hispanic.