Measuring drinking context.

This paper is based on the session entitled "Measuring Drinking Context" that was held on May 12, 1997 at the International Workshop on Consumption Measures and Models for Use in Policy Development and Evaluation, Bethesda, MD. The session chair was Ronald Knibbe; presenters were Deborah Dawson, Tim Stockwell, Paul Gruenewald, and Eric Single; and discussants were Kathryn Graham, Thomas Greenfield, Thomas Harford, Michael Hilton, and Harold Holder

Changes in social roles as predictors of changes in drinking behaviour.

Department of Medical Sociology, Maastricht University, The Netherlands. [email protected] AIM: To assess the possible effects of changes in marital status, employment status and having children at home on alcohol consumption and the frequency of heavy drinking. With role theory as a starting point it was expected that a shift into more social roles would decrease consumption and heavy drinking while the shift away from social roles would be associated with an increase in consumption and heavy drinking. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: The province of Limburg, The Netherlands (1980-89). PARTICIPANTS: 1327 men and women aged 16-69 years at first measurement. MEASUREMENTS: Weekly consumption of standard units (10 g ethanol) of alcoholic beverages; frequency of drinking six units or more; self-reported social role. FINDINGS: The acquisition of a spouse role and a parental role but not an employment role was associated with a decrease in consumption or heavy drinking. The loss of the spouse role among women was associated with an increase in heavy drinking. Otherwise, losing a role was not linked with a change in consumption and heavy drinking. CONCLUSIONS: Limited support was found for the expectation that role transitions influence drinking behaviour. Our study suggests that other theories must be sought to explain social differences in drinking behaviour

Are the effects of early pubertal timing on the initiation of weekly alcohol use mediated by peers and/or parents? A longitudinal study

Item does not contain fulltextWe investigated whether the link between early pubertal timing and initiation of weekly alcohol use is mediated by changes in perceived parental alcohol-specific rule setting and changes in perceived proportion of drinkers in the peer group. Longitudinal data including 3 annual waves were used to estimate the hazard for adolescents to initiate drinking alcohol using Cox proportional hazard structural equation models in 1,286 Dutch adolescents (50.2% boys) 13–14 years old at baseline in 2008. Early pubertal timing increased the risk to initiate weekly alcohol use. However, this risk was entirely mediated by a large increase in the perceived proportion of drinkers in the peer group and a large decrease in the frequency of perceived alcohol-specific rules for early pubertal timers within a period of 1 year. There is no direct risk for early pubertal timers to initiate weekly drinking per se but an indirect one via changes in their social environments, that is, a large increase in the perceived proportion of drinkers in their peer group and parents becoming more lenient in their alcohol-specific rule setting. It is important to motivate parents not to relax their alcohol-specific rule setting over time, particularly parents of early pubertal timers.9 p

Preventing adolescent a0lcohol use: Effects of a two-year quasi-experimental community intervention intensifying formal and informal control

Contains fulltext : 126421.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Purpose: To determine the effect on adolescent alcohol use of a community intervention combining intensified formal control (restricting retail supply) and informal control (restricting social supply). Intervention effects on intermediate intervention goals were investigated. Analyses for different age groups were performed. Methods: A longitudinal quasi-experimental design (baseline at 2008, plus two yearly post-measurements) was used, including one intervention and one matched-comparison community in The Netherlands. We assessed outcomes by observing 1,368 Dutch adolescents aged 13-15 years at baseline. Main dependent variables were weekly drinking status and progression into drunkenness among weekly drinkers. Additional dependent variables were formal control intermediate intervention goals (frequency of alcohol purchases and perceived ease of purchasing alcohol) and informal control intermediate intervention goals (frequency of alcohol-specific rules and parental alcohol supply). Results: Survival analyses showed no significant reduction in the risk of drinking weekly for adolescents in the intervention region; however, the risk of progressing into drunkenness was reduced by 15% (p = .04) for adolescents drinking weekly. No intervention effects on the intermediate intervention goals were found among 14- and 15-year-olds. The intervention had a positive effect on two of four intermediate intervention goals (i.e., parental alcohol supply and alcohol-specific rules) among 13-year-olds. Conclusions: A combined formal and informal community intervention package is associated with a reduced risk of progressing into drunkenness among drinking adolescents. Interventions focusing on discouraging drinking below a certain age might cause a greater increase in the frequency of purchasing alcohol once reaching this age.7 p