This proposal outlines two studies intended to examine "causal" factors for alcohol use among college students. However, it is unlikely that the proposed research will accomplish this as much of it is correlational in nature. Study 1 involves examining the prospective relationship between emotional distress and alcohol use. Data for this study come from the first four waves of an ongoing prospective study on parental alcoholism and alcohol use in young adults (conducted by the sponsor, Dr. Kenneth Sher). The data are to be analyzed in two phases. Phase 1 intends to use SEM to model the distress-alcohol use relationship while Phase 2 intends reanalyze the data, using hierarchical multiple regression to examine "putative moderators" of the distress- alcohol use relationship. Study 2 is a cross-sectional study examining the emotional distress and alcohol use as a function of ethnicity. This "to be collected" data will also be analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression.