Native American Youth and Alcohol: An Annotated Bibliography

Alcohol problems among Native Americans are severe and widespread. Statistics report that the rate of alcohol-related deaths is about eight times greater for Native Americans than for the U.S. population as a whole. This bibliography identifies the problems of alcoholism and alcohol abuse among Native American youth as a severe mental and physical health issue that deserves closer study, and it brings together in one volume most of what is known about the subject to date. The increasing amount of research that has appeared in recent years has created the need for a comprehensive reference focusing not only on anthropological and sociological concerns, but on questions more specifically relevant to Native Americans, such as child abuse and neglect, foster homes, school problems, dropouts, peer relation effects, family modeling response, fetal alcohol syndrome, developmental factors, and, most importantly, social deprivation. The authors maintain that the emerging literature on Native American youth’s alcoholism is multidisciplinary in nature, suggesting that the subject in general has taken on greater significance in the social framework of this country.

Native American Youth and Alcohol makes a valuable contribution by emphasizing the current publications on Indian youth and alcohol in an accessible format that offers a broad spectrum of opinion and analysis. This timely work will be read by professionals in the human services field and by a variety of researchers, practitioners, and those who are currently engaged in health promotion and disease prevention activities.