Citation

Pagano A, Lee JP, Sin T. Subst. Use Misuse 2014; 49(8): 999-1006.

Affiliation

1Institute for Health Policy Studies, UC San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, California, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.3109/10826084.2013.855233

PMID

24779499

Abstract

Observed differences in substance use are frequently attributed to cultural norms, which in turn are often interpreted as fixed properties of ethnically defined groups. During a community-based participatory research study (2009-2011), U.S. Cambodian women identified community-specific drinking behaviors and beliefs. To test how widely other U.S. Cambodians shared their views, we formulated them into a series of normative statements and surveyed local community members (N = 172). We identified few consensualized norms, which suggests that (A) norms may not be reducible to normative statements; and/or (B) norms may not be shared by all group members; and (C) if neither A nor B holds, then the attribution of observed drinking patterns to cultural norms lacks internal validity. Study's limitations were noted.

Language: en