Binge drinking in Chinese, Korean, and White college students: genetic and ethnic group differences.

Studies of Asian college students have found that rates of binge drinking are associated with variation in the aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2) gene. Chinese and Koreans have different prevalence rates of the ALDH2*2 allele, alcohol use, and alcoholism. The association of ALDH2 status and ethnic group with binge drinking was examined in 328 Chinese, Korean, and White college students. Ethnic group differences were found, with Whites having the highest rate of binge drinking, followed by Koreans and then Chinese. Among Asian participants, ALDH2 status and ethnicity related to binge drinking in an additive manner. Possessing an ALDH2*2 allele and being Chinese were protective factors, and being White and being Korean without an ALDH2*2 allele were risk factors for binge drinking. These results suggest that ALDH2 status, as well as other factors that differ in Koreans and Chinese, but do not interact with ALDH2, are associated with binge drinking among Asians.

Invariance of the MAST across religious groups.

OBJECTIVE: The Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST), a commonly used instrument of alcohol-related problems, was examined to determine whether it assessed the same constructs in individuals from religions with different proscriptions regarding the use of alcohol. METHOD: The MAST was completed by participants in the longitudinal Joint Child Health Project when they were approximately 23 years old. Subjects of this study (N= 747; 505 men) were 465 Hindus, 223 Catholics and 59 Muslims who reported drinking alcohol. Measurement invariance, the determination that the same constructs are being measured across groups, was tested by comparing factor invariance using multigroup structural equation modeling. RESULTS: The Hindu and Catholic groups had similar factor structures to those found in previous Australian, Canadian and U.S. samples. Metric invariance was obtained for the Hindu and Catholic groups, but not for the Muslim group. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest the measurement of MAST factors is invariant across a fairly broad segment of the population in which the MAST might be used. However, the lack of invariance in this sample of Muslims suggests that the MAST is not an appropriate instrument to use among all groups of drinkers. These findings highlight the importance of testing for invariance when using psychological measures to compare heterogeneous samples.

Age-related changes in a human cognitive mapping system: data from a computer-generated environment.

Two studies investigated age-related changes in human spatial cognition. In Study 1, younger and older adults searched computer-generated space, over several trials, for the location of a hidden target. Younger adults, but not older adults, quickly located the target and consistently returned to it. All the younger adults, but few of the older adults, reported using spatial relations among distal cues to navigate the space. In Study 2, young, middle-aged, and older adults performed the same task, but were provided with increased environmental support and pre-task training. The data pattern from Study 1 was replicated, with the performance of middle-aged adults falling between that of young and older adults. Although older adults in Study 2 reported less experience at completing computer-based tasks than did young and middle-aged adults, effects of this differential level of computer experience appeared to diminish over the course of experimental procedures (i.e., group differences that appeared on pre-task non-spatial practice trials were not apparent on a similar post-task trial). Age-related differences in spatial cognition persisted, however. Thus, the current data (a) suggest that a human cognitive mapping system changes over the lifespan, (b) suggest that computer-generated tasks can be sensitive to those changes, and (c) are consistent with a substantial literature investigating age-related changes in human and rodent spatial cognition.