Acculturative stress and alcohol use among Latinx recruited from a primary care clinic: Moderations by emotion dysregulation.

Among Latinx in the United States, alcohol is the most widely abused substance and is associated with a range of negative consequences. Acculturative stress is one factor that is relevant regarding Latinx substance use although more work is needed in this area. In theory, those with more adaptive emotion regulation capabilities may be better able to buffer against the adverse effects of acculturative stress on alcohol use because the person has more and better strategies to deal with life stress. Thus, the current study sought to examine the moderating role of dysregulation in the association of acculturative stress and alcohol use among Latinx in primary care. Latinx adults (N = 94; M-age = 38.5 years, SD = 10.8; 86.6% female) recruited from a Federally Qualified Health Center provided self-reported ratings of acculturative stress, emotion dysregulation, and alcohol use. All measures were in Spanish. Covariates included sex, marital status, age, years in the United States, negative affectivity, and clinic visit reason (patient vs. person accompanying patient). There was a statistically significant interaction of acculturative stress and emotion dysregulation (beta = 1.65, t = 2.29, p = .025) on alcohol use, which accounted for 4.8% of additional variance over and above covariates and the nonsignificant main effects. Simple slope analyses revealed that acculturative stress was associated with alcohol use among those with high (beta = 0.28, t = 2.04, p = .045), but not low (beta = -0.28, t = -1.26, p = .210) levels of emotion dysregulation. The current results indicate that emotion dysregulation moderates the association between acculturative stress and alcohol use among Latinx in primary care.