UTEP Center to Study How Men Overcame Alcohol Abuse
Last Updated on April 22, 2020 at 12:00 AM
Originally published April 22, 2020
By UC Staff
UTEP Communications
EL PASO, Texas – A new study at The University of Texas at El Paso will look at the psychological factors that led some Hispanic men to successfully change their heavy drinking behavior in order to help others make similar changes. The study begins during Alcohol Awareness Month.
National statistics show that Hispanics – who comprise 82% of the population in El Paso – largely abstain from alcohol. However, when they do drink, they drink in ways that are more likely to adversely impact their lives.
Binge drinking can lead to many types of problems that can affect individuals, their family and their community. Some of these drinkers realize their problem and they have found ways to change their drinking habits with treatment or participation in Alcoholics Anonymous, but many of them change on their own.
Those individuals – the ones who solved their problems through their own devices – can help researchers from The University of Texas at El Paso. A cohort of faculty, staff and students who are part of UTEP’s Latino Alcohol and Health Disparities Research (LAHDR) and Training Center plan to launch a new self-funded research effort, called CAMBIOS, in April 2020 that will focus on successful changes among heavy drinkers that may include abstinence.
For CAMBIOS, LAHDR hopes to recruit Hispanic men ages 20 to 50 from the Paso del Norte region who have effectively changed their drinking behavior. The researchers want to learn what, how and why the participants decided to alter their behavior. The center will study the psychological factors and cultural risks the men encountered.
“In the end, these men have made a change that will impact their lives in positive ways,” said Craig Field, Ph.D., professor of psychology and director of the LAHDR center. “That change will benefit them, their families, their careers and their communities. We want to learn more about the factors that led them to make this change and how those factors contribute to their success. If we better understand what it is that allows them to succeed, we can help others successfully make this change, too.”
Prospective participants are encouraged to read more about CAMBIOS on the LAHDR website, utep.edu/lahdr. The researchers will conduct their study electronically so participants can respond privately at their convenience.
This is an important and worthwhile project, said Raul Caetano, Ph.D., senior research scientist at the Prevention Research Center, which is part of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Berkeley, California. He also is professor emeritus of epidemiology at the The University of Texas School of Public Health, Dallas Regional Campus. He met Field there more than 15 years ago. They have collaborated on several research projects since then.
