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Designing a Survey of Public Opinions Regarding Alcohol Control Policies Among African American and White Adults

The incidence of alcohol-related morbidity and mortality in the United States is significant. Ethnic minority communities are particularly vulnerable to alcohol-related problems.1-3 One avenue for reducing these problems is through the implementation of alcohol control policies. Alcohol control policies refer to the constellation of laws and regulations that affects how alcoholic beverages are manufactured, packaged, distributed, sold, and consumed.4 Effective implementation of public policies designed to minimize alcohol-related problems requires a significant level of public support.5,6 Moreover, public attitudes and opinions may well vary significantly across ethnic subgroups, and such differences must be understood for successful implementation of alcohol control policies. Race/ethnicity, however, has not been a major variable of interest in studies of alcohol control policy opinions, despite the debate and controversy that surrounds a number of alcohol control policy initiatives in African American communities (for example, the decision to rebuild liquor stores damaged during the Watts rebellion in South Central Los Angeles). In 1994, the authors designed a five-year study to examine whether African American and white adults differ in their opinions regarding alcohol control policies and whether similar or different factors are related to support for alcohol control policies in the two groups. The purpose of this paper is to describe the overall design of the study. The model on which the present research is based is depicted in Figure 1. The model suggests that public opinions are influenced by multiple factors and that race/ethnicity may interact with any number of these factors to explain differences between African Americans and whites in their level of support of alcohol control policies.