Parents' alcohol use: gender differences in the impact of household and family chores

Background: Social roles influence alcohol use. Nevertheless, little is known about how specific aspects of a given role, here parenthood, may influence alcohol use. The research questions for this study were the following: (i) are family-related indicators (FRI) linked to the alcohol use of mothers and fathers? and (ii) does the level of employment, i.e. full-time, part-time employment or unemployment, moderate the relationship between FRI and parental alcohol use? Methods: Survey data of 3217 parents aged 25-50 living in Switzerland. Mean comparisons and multiple regression models of annual frequency of drinking and risky single occasion drinking, quantity per day on FRI (age of the youngest child, number of children in the household, majority of child-care/household duties). Results: Protective relationships between FRI and alcohol use were observed among mothers. In contrast, among fathers, detrimental associations between FRI and alcohol use were observed. Whereas maternal responsibilities in general had a protective effect on alcohol use, the number of children had a detrimental impact on the quantity of alcohol consumed per day when mothers were in paid employment. Among fathers, the correlations between age of the youngest child, number of children and frequency of drinking was moderated by the level of paid employment. Conclusion: The study showed that in Switzerland, a systematic negative relationship was more often found between FRI and women's drinking than men's. Evidence was found that maternal responsibilities per se may protect from alcohol use but can turn into a detrimental triangle if mothers are additionally in paid employmen

A COMPARISON OF THE ALCOHOL USE DISORDER IDENTIFICATION TEST (AUDIT) IN GENERAL POPULATION SURVEYS IN NINE EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Aims: This study explored the suitability of the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) for cross-national comparable estimates of problem drinking in general populations. On the item level the focus is on responsiveness to cross-national and gender differences. For the set of items the focus is on intercorrelations between items, indicating to what extent the AUDIT constitutes a scale. Methods: General population surveys from nine European countries were included. Cross-tabulations were used to analyse cross-national and gender differences in scores on the items. Reliability analysis was used to analyse intercorrelations between the items. Results: The items ‘blackouts' (men and women) and ‘guilt and remorse' (women) are the most frequently reported consequences. Gender differences tended to be smaller for ‘guilt and remorse' and ‘concern of others', and largest for ‘morning drinking'. The reliability analysis shows that in eight of the nine countries frequency of drinking lowers the alpha. Injury and concern of others lead to a lower internal consistency in three countries. Conclusions: There was sufficient variation between countries in the pattern of responses and variation in gender differences to conclude that the set of consequence items was responsive to national and gender differences in problem drinking. Frequency of drinking was not a good indicator of problem drinking. The country differences in item total correlations of consequences might be due to differences in how these items are interpreted. Decisions on which items to include in an instrument to allow comparison of estimates of problem drinking cross-nationally require studies on how these items are interpreted in general populations of different countrie

A Dutch panel study on the relation between structure of everyday life, daily hassles, and alcohol consumption

Abstract Background A widely held assumption within the general public is that one way in which people cope with their daily hassles is by drinking alcohol. Although the idea of drinking to compensate for daily hassles is intuit, empirical evidence is actually rather scarce. This study aimed to test whether structure of everyday life results in more daily hassles and has a protective effect regarding alcohol consumption (as predicted by classic role theory) or – in case the relation between daily hassles and alcohol consumption is positive (as predicted by tension reduction theories) – daily hassles would decrease the protective effect of having a more structured everyday life. Methods A general population panel study (N = 2,440; 47% women; age: M = 52 years, SD = 17), measuring structure of everyday life and daily hassles (T1; 90% response rate) as well as alcohol consumption (T2; 85% response rate). Results In line with classic role theory – structure of everyday life was positively associated with daily hassles and had a negative effect on alcohol consumption. Daily hassles was not associated with alcohol consumption. Conclusions Daily hassles did not mediate the relationship between structure of everyday life and alcohol consumption.</p

Informal social control of drinking in intimate relationships - A comparative analysis

A number of studies have shown that pressure from others is an important element in decision making concerning entering treatment and that the pressure most often comes from one's partner. Is has also been found that, besides actual drinking habits, togetherness of drinking, i.e., proportion of drinking occasions spent together with partner, is reversely connected to pressure from partner to drink less. This article examines these relationships in a comparative perspective, using GENACIS survey data from 16 countries. The results confirmed that on both individual and aggregated level, there is a relationship between drinking and pressure from partner. There is more pressure reported in “dry” cultures and heavy drinking individuals are more often the object than others—in all cultures studied. In only a few countries with rather a different drinking culture, drinking together prevents the pressure, also when controlled for actual consumption. Except for Uganda and UK, men are generally more exposed to pressure to drink less exerted by their female partners and this cannot only be explained by the fact that they actually drink more. </jats:p

Adolescents Binge Drinking When on Holiday: An Evaluation of a Community Intervention Based on Self-Regulation

This paper presents a case study of a community intervention aimed at reducing excessive drinking in young men on holiday in seaside camping resorts in the Netherlands. The self-regulated voluntary covenant of parties concerned was evaluated on the basis of several types of data (all collected in 2004): questionnaires administered to young men (N = 191), observations carried out by trained "peers, "nuisance questionnaires among city center residents (N = 121), and interviews with local actors. Compliance with measures as well as the effects of measures are discussed. Limitations are noted and recommendations for optimizing the potential of community interventions are made