Effects of alcohol-related stereotypes on American Indian and Alaska Native People
Our research has focused on factors affecting alcohol use outcomes among American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) peoples, in particular the effect of believe in the unsubstantiated notion that AIANs have a specific biological vulnerability (BV) to problems with alcohol (aka the “firewater myth”). This research has showed that belief in a BV is associated with worse alcohol use outcomes among AIAN college students and AI individuals in recovery.
Grant support
This research was funded by the following grants
Innovate Grant 2017
&
Innovate Grant 2012
National Institute of General Medical Sciences – U54GM115371
&
5P20GM104417– 02
Revised Firewater Myth Scale
The Firewater Myth Scale (FMS) was developed by C. June LaMarr (2003). We revised LaMarr’s scale to primarily focus on items related to genetic or biological vulnerability to alcohol problems (Gonzalez & Skewes, 2016).
For research where we wanted to measure belief in an AIAN biological vulnerability, but couldn’t afford the time to administer the entire scale, we have used only three items from the 9-item biological vulnerability subscale (Gonzalez & Skewes, 2021). This version also eliminates distractor items regarding other races or ethnicities.
We also developed a single item measure that is being used in a qualitative study to understand why AIAN individuals do or do not believe in this notion.