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This paper replicates and extends previous analyses supporting the dimensionality of a new measure of spirituality-religiosity designed for largely minority participants in substance abuse treatment. Data are presented from participants in explicitly faith-based substance abuse treatment programs (Teen Challenge), and multi-group confirmatory factor analysis techniques are applied to assess the invariance of the factor structure, comparing data from the new Teen Challenge validation sample with the correlation matrix from the initial scale development sample. Model fit in the present analyses reached acceptable levels with the addition of error covariances. Further, invariance tests comparing scale development and Teen Challenge validation samples did not suggest systematic variation in loadings between groups. The present comparisons support the originally proposed four-dimensional structure while supporting the use of the measure in both traditional and faith-based programs. Strengths of the present analyses include: use of diverse treatment programs in several states as well as increased precision of the present CFA findings, as program level effects (i.e., intra-class correlations) have been removed through use of residualized data in the analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the phenomenon of ‘solitary drinking’, considering whether Anglo, African American and Mexican American male regular drinkers differ in the propensity to drink in solitary contexts and whether such differences may help to explain observed ethnic variation in patterns of heavy drinking. Further, the paper considers whether apparent relationships between solitary drinking and drinking patterns are explained by individual personality characteristics such as social isolation and/or by endorsement of ‘escape drinking’ motives. Data were analysed from a random community sample of 481 adult male regular drinkers in San Antonio, Texas, USA. Contingency table and logistic regression analyses indicated that initially observed ethnic differences in high quantity and high maximum drinking were largely eliminated by controls for education, escape motives and solitary drinking. Ethnic variation in the role of solitary drinking was suggested as well, with solitary drinking more strongly related to high quantity consumption, in particular, among African Americans than among Mexican Americans. The nature of the observed interactions suggests that fundamental differences between Anglos and African Americans in the roles of solitary drinking and escape drinking motives may underlie seemingly similar frequent, lower quantity drinking patterns in these groups that appear more frequently than among Mexican American males. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]