Meghan (Garvey) Lally

This chapter presents a cultural perspective regarding prevention and treatment against the use and abuse of alcohol and illegal drugs as this occurs among persons from the major racial/ethnic minority groups of the United States: Latinos/Hispanics, African Americans/Blacks, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans/American Indians and Alaska Natives. For these special populations, we examine emerging factors that involve the growing diversification of these populations and their relationship to alcohol and illegal drug use. Regarding alcohol and other substance use prevention with minority adolescent youth, we examine issues of etiology, the psychology of ethnicity and multiple racial/ethnic identities, and approaches to the development of youth prevention interventions. We also present some approaches for the design of future research and culturally responsive evidence-based interventions (Castro, Barrera, & Holleran Steiker, 2010).