Pegs and Paradoxes: A Cultural Review of Alcohol Use in the Punjabi-Sikh Community
Pegs and Paradoxes: A Cultural Review of Alcohol Use in the Punjabi-Sikh Community
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Issue Date
2025-09-30
Authors
Bains, Angie
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Abstract
This capstone aims to fill this gap by exploring the factors that lead to addiction, identifying barriers to treatment from the community’s perspective, and proposing culturally appropriate support strategies to foster community involvement in addressing alcohol addiction. This paper’s theoretical framework is centred on developing a culturally sensitive understanding of alcohol use from a Punjabi-Sikh perspective, integrating biopsychosocial factors to comprehend addiction, its complex influences, and culturally appropriate interventions. This literature review used a comprehensive and thematic approach to examine alcohol use within the Punjabi-Sikh community, emphasizing cultural, religious, and social factors that influence drinking behaviours and access to support. Over time, there has been an increase in Punjabi counsellors, but their numbers remain far fewer than those of white counsellors. To effectively serve the Punjabi community, current counsellors may need to enhance their understanding of Punjabi culture, its relationship with the Sikh religion, and how these aspects coexist within the broader Canadian cultural context.
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Keywords
alcohol , Punjabi , Sikh , addiction , mental health , East Indian , South Asian , treatment
License
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States , openAccess