Diaz, Héctor Luis

Dr. Héctor Luis Diaz is a member of the social work graduate faculty at The University of Texas at Arlington. His areas of teaching and research expertise include social welfare policy, cultural diversity, research, and international social work. He is also the Coordinator of the University’s Doctoral Program in International Comparative Social Welfare policy. He has worked in the field of substance abuse with Latino populations in the United States for more than 10 years.

Alcohol Abuse and Acculturation Among Puerto Ricans in the United States: A Sociological Study

2005 0-7734-6105-1
This book details an exploratory research study that was conducted to examine the associations between acculturation, stress, alcohol consumption and other variables in a sample of 100 Puerto Rican alcohol users residing in the state of Massachusetts. The study relied on a cross sectional survey and a non probability sample. The data collected included acculturation scores, acculturation stress scores, data on the use of alcohol and other drugs, and demographic information. Comparisons were made among sample subjects based on gender, place of birth, acculturation levels, and educational levels.

No statistically significant differences were found among subjects in the low, partial and high acculturation categories in terms of their levels of acculturative stress, or their frequency and amount of alcohol consumption. Significant associations were found, however, between stress and alcohol and illegal drug use. Findings suggest that the associations between alcohol/drug use and stress were significantly stronger among female and United States-born subjects. Study findings also suggest differences between Puerto Rican and other Latino alcohol users in the United States. The main focus of this study was not to test hypotheses but to help generate hypotheses. For this reason, after exploring the associations between a number of variables, the book concludes by providing research ideas and by recommending 12 hypotheses to be tested in future research.