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Background and aims The rising use of digital media in the last decade, including social networking media and downloadable applications, has created new opportunities for marketing a wide range of goods and services, including alcohol products. This paper aims to review the evidence in order to answer a series of policy-relevant questions: does alcohol marketing through digital media influence drinking behaviour or increases consumption; what methods of promotional marketing are used, and to what extent; and what is the evidence of marketing code violations and especially of marketing to children? Method and findings A search of scientific, medical and social journals and authoritative grey literature identified 47 relevant papers (including 14 grey literature documents). The evidence indicated (i) that exposure to marketing through digital media was associated with higher levels of drinking behaviour; (ii) that the marketing activities make use of materials and approaches that are attractive to young people and encourage interactive engagement with branded messaging; and (iii) there is evidence that current alcohol marketing codes are being undermined by alcohol producers using digital media. Conclusions There is evidence to support public health interventions to restrict the commercial promotion of alcohol in digital media, especially measures to protect children and youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the relationship between social status, alcohol consumption and taste, using a Danish company as empirical case. Methodologically as well as theoretically, the paper is inspired by Bourdieu. A social space tied to socioeconomic status and gendered work positions is constructed using specific multiple correspondence analysis. Hereafter, a range of variables measuring alcohol-related practices and preferences are analysed, showing that specific drinking styles and alcohol preferences are associated with specific positions in the company’s status space. An omnivorous drinking style, embracing a broad variety of beverage types, drinking contexts and drinking companions is associated with high positions in the firm, as are specific types of drinks and specific reasons for drinking. The paper discusses drinking patterns as both a reflection of and a contribution to social status differences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While beer has maintained a position as the most popular alcoholic beverage among men age 21-34, a recent Gallup poll indicates that craft beer has surpassed wine as the most popular beverage for women in the same age group in USA. In light of this trend, there has been little research done to explore gender dynamics in craft beer consumption and the craft beer industry. This paper seeks to understand the increasing popularity of craft beer among women by: (1) exploring beer as a gendered object, (2) illuminating the experiences of women in the craft beer culture and industry, and (3) examining how gender is done, redone, and undone in craft beer spaces. Drawing from a discursive content analysis of an online beer community, it seeks to consider the gendered nature of beer and how gender is both reconfigured and upheld, allowing for the possibility for new consumption patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the evidence for the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of policies to reduce alcohol-related harm. Policies focus on price, marketing, availability, information and education, the drinking environment, drink-driving, and brief interventions and treatment. Although there is variability in research design and measured outcomes, evidence supports the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of policies that address affordability and marketing. An adequate reduction in temporal availability, particularly late night on-sale availability, is effective and cost-effective. Individually-directed interventions delivered to at-risk drinkers and enforced legislative measures are also effective. Providing information and education increases awareness, but is not sufficient to produce long-lasting changes in behaviour. At best, interventions enacted in and around the drinking environment lead to small reductions in acute alcohol-related harm. Overall, there is a rich evidence base to support the decisions of policy makers in implementing the most effective and cost-effective policies to reduce alcohol-related harm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth alcohol consumption has been steadily declining in Australia, as in other countries; fewer young people are drinking and the age of initiation is increasing. However, young people, their parents and others in their communities continue to believe that adolescent (excessive) drinking is the norm. This perception, and the concurrent misperception that the majority of parents are happy to provide their underage children with alcohol, creates a perceived culture of acceptance of youth alcohol consumption. Young people believe that it is accepted, and even expected, that they will drink; and parents perceive that not providing their adolescent children with alcohol will lead to social exclusion. There is evidence that shifting social norms can have an immediate and lasting effect adolescents’ (and adults’) alcohol related attitudes and behaviors. This paper reports on a novel, community based social marketing intervention designed to correct misperceptions of alcohol related social norms in an Australian community. The project utilized a social marketing approach, informed by the full complement of Andreasen’s social marketing benchmarking criteria, and concurrently targeted adolescents, parents of adolescents and the broader community. Using extensive formative research and multiple evaluation techniques, the study demonstrates that shifts in community social norms are possible and suggests that this approach could be used more widely to support the positive trends in youth alcohol consumption and parental supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of typical consequences for alcohol and other substances have been well documented. However, a specific category of consequences which has received no attention in the existing literature includes acts (other than sexual assault) committed upon incapacitated individuals. We have termed this behavior body vandalism (BV), defined as the direct manipulation of an incapacitated individual through the addition of markings, objects or substances, removal of property or hair, or relocation of a body. The purpose of this paper is to provide a preliminary examination of rates of experiencing and variations in positive and negative perceptions of this behavior from the victim's perspective. A pilot study was conducted aimed at examining the rates and demographic characteristics of body vandalism in a national sample of 981 adults. The majority of individuals had witnessed BV, half had perpetrated, and over 40% had been a victim in their lifetime. Rates of lifetime victimization and perpetration were low (1-2 times). Perpetrators most often targeted their friends and alcohol was typically a factor in victimization. Over half of victims reported experiencing positive social outcomes as a result of being victimized and about a third reported negative emotional outcomes. Findings suggest that experiences of body vandalism are relatively common, especially in young adults, associated with alcohol consumption, and result in both positive and negative outcomes for victims. This study offers evidence for BV as an outcome of social drinking, suggests contexts that increase the risk of BV occurrence, and provides a foundation from which future studies can build. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with a forecast of developments in alcohol consumption based on current alcohol consumption per capita (expressed in litres of pure alcohol), and time series extrapolations. Alcohol consumption is to be considered from the vantage point of knowing the specifics of the product and the consequences of its excessive consumption. The predictive methodology makes use of the Box-Jenkins method; the ARIMA model, taking into account the autocorrelation and partial autocorrelation process, which is a prerequisite for the successful identification of a time series model; model parameter estimation; appropriate transformations of time series; determining the order of differentiation and subsequent verification of the model. The chosen methodology for future trends in alcohol consumptions is a prerequisite for the proposed optional measures to control alcohol consumption in the Czech Republic. Due to the long term nature of the process to draw up and implement alcohol consumption regulation measures, the forecast covers the forthcoming 10 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper interrogates the multiple spatialities bound up with the consumption of units as the dominant means of diagnosing 'health-related' alcohol problems and measuring 'drunkenness' in international alcohol policy and research. In order to question the power afforded to units, we work at the intersection of theoretical debates concerning biopower and governmentality; emotional, embodied and affective geographies and actor network theory. Presenting empirical research from the UK we contribute to geographical agendas that seek to consider the ontological and epistemological understandings of alcohol, drinking and drunkenness. The paper concludes by calling for dialogue between social, health and medical scientists in order to develop more pertinent ways of understanding and representing the risks and benefits of alcohol consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines how structural vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in Malawi is produced through a complex interplay of economic, cultural, and political factors operating over relational places within the country as well as in the wider Southern Africa subcontinental landscape. Based on empirical work on an impoverished community in the Chibavi township of Mzuzu City in northern Malawi, and drawing on disciplinary perspectives from social psychology and geography, the study does not only demonstrate how vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in this urban centre emerges from the immediate context of pervasive economic deprivation and ready availability of locally distilled highly potent liquor known as kachasu, but also shows how these social realities are intimately connected with an overlapping set of historic processes operating at various temporal and spatial scales. The paper provides a nuanced understanding of the geographies of vulnerability to the AIDS epidemic in northern Malawi and concludes with relevant policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims This paper has as its focus a study tour made by the author in 1961. Diary notes are used to capture a historical moment in the evolution of alcohol studies. The paper will argue for the continuing value today of such experiences in support of career development and the building of ‘the field’. Data sources Diary notes and personal recollection. Findings The United States was at the time more active than the United Kingdom in its response to alcohol problems. There was, however, a disjunction between the elite American research world and the world of action, which was not informed greatly by research. For the most part, treatment services and prevention strategies seemed driven by opinion rather than by evidence. But at the level of serious scientific endeavour there was opportunity to meet influential figures including Seldon Bacon, Morris Chafetz, Milton Gross, Ebbe Curtis Hoff, Harris Isbell, E. M. Jellinek, Mark Keller, Benjamin Kissen, Robert Strauss, Wolf Schmidt and Abraham Wikler, who generously made their time available. Conclusions These diary notes provide a snapshot of a field of endeavour at a critical stage of transition from uninformed assumptions towards establishment of a research base which can inform public action. The visit was of tangible value to the visitor in several different identified ways. Such an experience is inevitably time-bound and personal, but there are general conclusions to be drawn as to the benefits which will be derived from early travel opportunities in a field such as alcohol studies, which is all too easily culture-bound in its horizons and assumptions. Alcohol science needs to be more reflective on its history and the mechanisms that help to make it happen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Negative perceptions of anti-social behaviour have been shown by previous research to have harmful repercussions to both an individual’s mental and physical health as well as the neighbourhood’s long-term prospects. Studies in the USA have previously found that the location of alcohol supply points is associated with these negative perceptions, whereas recent, more qualitative and ethnographic research from the UK emphasises the heterogenous and contingent nature of attitudes and perceptions towards alcohol consumption patterns and behaviour. Using multilevel models applied to data from a national crime survey and geocoded data on pubs, bars and nightclubs, this paper focuses on the complex relationship between perceptions of alcohol-related anti-social behaviour and the density of such establishments across England. The findings support the general link between unfavourable perceptions and density of outlets but also highlight the complexity of this association by showing that these relationships are dependent on other characteristics of the neighbourhood, namely deprivation and the proportion of young people in the neighbourhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the centrality of consent to the definitions of sexual offences under the Crimes Act 1961, it remains a relatively under-theorised concept. In this paper I offer a critique of the current position through a feminist lens, examining its implications for women's sexuality. Case law concerning intoxicated consent is analysed as a specific example of the limitations that the current conceptualisation of sexual consent places on women's sexual autonomy. Specifically, I critique the treatment of the "voluntariness" of intoxication as relevant to the question of consent, and the requirement of extreme intoxication for consent to be called into question. In response to these issues, I argue that a re-conceptualisation of consent as a communicative, affirmative standard is necessary to better enable women to exercise their sexual autonomy. Such a standard may challenge the rape myths subscribed to by many judges and jurors, and may promote more empowered conceptions of female sexuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During my college days, an interesting phenomenon caught my attention. On the one hand, there was a growing popularity of booze. Boozing amongst the peers was seen as modern, liberal, progressive. On the other hand, back home parents viewed drinking liquor as a social evil, undesirable influence of western culture, associated mostly with social discrepant. Parents often were haunted by the horror of their children giving in to boozing there by ruining their reputation and future. The question thus arises, are these only two available perspectives on booze and social drinking or do we have any other value system around the same prevalent in a society? Is social drinking a sign of the modern liberal society? Is it a foreign influence hazardous for Indian culture? Do we have an alternative story on the culture of drinks from within Indian community? I found that there are historical documentations on drinking habits in royal courts, merchant guilds, etc. However, it was among the tribes of India that, I found the most extensive cultural practices, and a holistic value system on indigenous drinks and drinking habits. In this paper, I would like to describe the role and use of indigenous drinks in the life cycle and various ceremonies of one of the identified Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group, called the Bondo Highlanders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Preventive interventions for adolescents are an important priority within school systems. Several interventions have been developed, but the effectiveness of such interventions varies considerably between studies. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of universal school-based prevention programs on alcohol use among adolescents by using meta-analytic techniques. Method A systematic literature search in the databases, PubMed (Medline), PsycINFO (Ovid), EMBASE (Ovid) and WEB of Science (ISI) was conducted to search for empirical articles published in the period January 1990 to August 2014. Results In total, 28 randomized controlled studies with 39,289 participants at baseline were included. Of these 28 articles, 12 studies (N = 16279) reported continuous outcomes (frequency of alcohol use and quantity of alcohol use), and 16 studies (N = 23010) reported categorical data (proportion of students who drank alcohol). The results of the random effects analyses showed that the overall effect size among studies reporting continuous outcomes was small and demonstrated a favorable effect from the preventive interventions (Hedges' ̅g = 0.22, p < .01). The effect size among studies reporting categorical outcomes was not significant (̅OR = 0.94, p = .25). The level of heterogeneity between studies was found to be significant in most analyses. Moderator analyses conducted to explore the heterogeneity showed neither significant difference between the different school levels (junior high schools and high schools), nor between the varied program intensities (low, medium and high intensity programs). The meta-regression analyses examining continuous moderators showed no significant effects for age or gender. Conclusions The findings from this meta-analysis showed that, overall, the effects of school-based preventive alcohol interventions on adolescent alcohol use were small but positive among studies reporting the continuous measures, whereas no effect was found among studies reporting the categorical outcomes. Possible population health outcomes, with recommendations for policy and practice, are discussed further in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public discourse and public policy relating to alcohol tend to concentrate on the social problem of 'excessive' drinking. Rather than concentrating on forms of 'excess', this paper investigates its counter-point, moderation, which, in regards to alcohol consumption, is a poorly understood concept. Official definitions of moderate drinking vary considerably between different countries and change across time. These fluid definitions are often connected to political or moral values, including temperance in the nineteenth century and personal responsibility today. This situation is complicated by the blurry nature of scientific evidence on the relationship between alcohol consumption and various forms of harm. There is an absence of compelling evidence about what amount or form of drinking can be considered responsible, safe or engendering an acceptable level of risk. In current understandings, risk cannot be precisely calculated or expressed on an individual basis and, hence, scientific discourse offers little certainty. Concentrating on the interpretation of evidence and the role of expertise, this article examines how experts and policy-makers arrive, nonetheless, at definitions of moderate drinking as well as policies that seek to promote them. It is argued that this process circumvents rather than confronts uncertainty and hence is damaging to both scientific validity and governmental credibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Purpose: Alcohol-related violence is a major public health problem, which can be tackled at a number of different levels, including societal, contextual, familial, social, and individual. The focus in this paper is on individual treatments to reduce the risk of violence associated with social drinking. Methods: This is a narrative review of the processes by which alcohol increases the likelihood of violence, with an emphasis on its deleterious effects on social information processing. Results: Alcohol priming promotes aggression cognitions and behavior; the drinking context presents triggers for violence; alcohol focuses attention on aggression cues; alcohol outcome expectancies predict drinking; anxious antisocial people who drink to increase social confidence may be at increased risk for aggression; hypermasculine values play a part in aggressive responding; emotional responses of anger, fear and excitement play a part in aggressive responses to perceived provocation; having a broad and accessible aggressive response repertoire, along with positive evaluations of aggressive responses predict aggressive behavior. Conclusions: Additional intervention components that could improve the effectiveness of individual-level interventions for alcohol-related violence are suggested. These could augment conventional interventions, but there is a considerable amount of work to be done in developing applications specifically for alcohol-related violence and evaluating outcomes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Objectives: Research from developed countries shows that child maltreatment increases the risk for substance use and problems. However, little evidence on this relationship is available from developing countries, and recognition of this relationship may have important implications for substance demand reduction strategies, including efforts to prevent and treat substance use and related problems. Latin America and the Caribbean is a rich and diverse region of the world with a large range of social and cultural influences. A working group constituted by the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission and the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in June, 2010 identified research on this relationship as a priority area for a multinational research partnership. Methods: This paper examines the association between self-reported child maltreatment and use in the past 12 months of alcohol and cannabis in 2294 university students in seven participating universities in six participating countries: Colombia, El Salvador, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama and Uruguay. The research also considers the possible impact of religiosity and minimal psychological distress as factors contributing to resiliency in these samples. Results: The results showed that experience of maltreatment was associated with increased use of alcohol and cannabis. However, the effects differed depending on the type of maltreatment experienced. Higher levels of religiosity were consistently associated with lower levels of alcohol and cannabis use, but we found no evidence of an impact of minimal psychological distress on these measures. Conclusions: This preliminary study shows that the experience of maltreatment may increase the risk of alcohol and cannabis use among university students in Latin American and Caribbean countries, but that higher levels of religiosity may reduce that risk. More work to determine the nature and significance of these relationships is needed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: College students drink in consistent patterns over the course of the academic semester and year (Beets et al., 2009; Del Boca et al., 2004). However, it is unclear if there are naturally occurring groups of female Thursday drinkers who display their own unique patterns of drinking across the semester. In a fall semester 10-week mixed online- and paper-based study of college female drinking, classes of Thursday drinkers were identified using Repeated Measures Latent Class Analysis. The 424 participants were recruited via flyers and advertisements in the student newspaper. It was determined that three latent classes provided optimal fit to the data: 1. Unlikely to report Thursday drinking; 2. Normal probability of Thursday drinkers; and 3. High probability of Thursday drinkers. The proportion of students within the latent classes differed across academic year in school. Seniors were least likely to be in the Unlikely group, and juniors and seniors were not in the Normal group. An additional analysis indicated that women in a sorority were four times more likely to be in the Normal or High groups compared to the Unlikely group. A final set of analyses indicated that women who enrolled in Friday morning classes were more likely to be in the Unlikely or Normal groups compared to the High group. Results indicated that the Unlikely group consumed significantly less alcohol at baseline, had lower levels of negative alcohol-related consequences prior to and during the study, and drank less on the weekends (Friday and Saturday). Female students who report drinking on Thursdays tend to be older, to be part of sororities, to have later classes or no classes on Friday, and to experience more negative alcohol-related consequences. Female students whose “weekends” start early are high-risk drinkers and might be targeted for future prevention and intervention efforts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Acculturation to U.S. society has been associated with an increase in drinking and binge drinking among Hispanics. This paper examines the association between acculturation and three drinking-related outcomes: average number of drinks consumed, binge drinking, and drinking 12 drinks or more in a single day in four major Hispanic national groups. The 2006 Hispanic Americans Baseline Alcohol Survey used a multistage cluster sample design to interview 5224 adult Hispanics (18+ years) in five selected U.S. metropolitan areas: Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Houston, and Los Angeles. The four national groups interviewed were: Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, Mexican Americans, and South/Central Americans. The survey response rate was 76%. Data on drinking behavior were collected and the analyses include bivariate and multivariate regression techniques. Multivariate analysis did not show an association between acculturation and volume of drinking, binge drinking, or drinking 12 or more drinks in a single day among men. Acculturation stress, however, was associated with drinking 12 or more in a day among men. Among women, high acculturation was associated with a higher volume of drinking, and it also interacted with national group to increase the likelihood of binge drinking. Acculturation does not have a homogeneous effect on drinking across gender and Hispanic national groups. The results confirm that acculturation has a more consistent association with increased drinking and binge drinking among women than among men. The effect of acculturation is therefore gender-specific. This heterogeneity across Hispanic national groups must be considered in future research, treatment, and prevention efforts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper reports on the impact of a lockout policy on levels of alcohol-related offences in and around licensed premises. The lockout policy prevents patrons from entering or re-entering late night trading licensed premises for a specific period prior to closure. A modified police activity log was utilised by all first response operational police to record their attendance at incidents in and around licensed premises. Chi-square analyses of the prevalence of incidents before and after implementation of the lockout policy demonstrated that the number of alcohol-related offences requiring police attention was significantly proportionally lower following the liquor trading changes. Alcohol-related offences, particularly those related to disturbances and sexual offences were significantly reduced following the introduction of the lockout policy. However, while offences related to property, stealing, and assault experienced a reduced trend, these did not reach significance. In contrast, traffic offence rates were unchanged. The findings of the study provide supportive evidence that lockout initiatives have potential as a major crime prevention technique to reduce specific types of alcohol-related offences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on interviews about the drinking trajectories of sixty young Victorian drinkers (aged 20-24), this paper outlines patterns of change over time and explores two drinking biographies in depth. For most research participants, drinking alcohol was an enjoyable and integral part of their social lives, but its role changed as they made other transitions in their lives. Most participants considered their early twenties to be a time for heavy alcohol consumption, and most imagined that they would drink less when they were middle-aged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the impact of fraternity and sorority membership on a wide array of drinking outcomes among respondents to four Harvard College Alcohol Study surveys from 1993 to 2001. Identification is achieved by including proxies for specific types of unobserved heterogeneity expected to influence the relationship. These include high school and parental drinking behaviors to account for time-invariant omitted factors and assessed importance of drinking-related activities and reasons for drinking to control for changes in preferences since starting college. Because self-selection is quantitatively important, I further hold constant variables plausibly affected by fraternity membership, such as current alcohol use categorization, ranging from abstainer to heavy drinker, and time spent socializing. Even in the fully saturated model, fraternity membership significantly increases drinking intensity, frequency, and recency, as well as the prevalence of many deleterious drinking consequences that potentially carry negative externalities. ( JEL I12, I20) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results of a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with 79 members of the Birmingham Untreated Heavy Drinkers Cohort. The cohort was recruited in 1997 when all participants were drinking 50 or more standard units of alcohol (men) or 35 or more units (women) most weeks. Present interviews were carried out as part of the fourth wave of interviews, held in 2003. The topic was the participants' places of drinking in the community and the functions those places served. The present analysis focused on the relationship between pubs and community. The strongest theme to emerge was that the pub provided for many participants a real sense of community in itself. It did so by enabling participants to meet with like-minded others, in a setting distinct from home or work, where conversing and confiding could take place in a relaxed atmosphere, with a range of other activities and forms of social support available to many. At the same time, participants were discriminating about which pubs they used, and when, and with whom they chose to interact. There was less consensus about whether the pub served a wider function by contributing to a positive sense of community in the local neighbourhood. It is suggested that English pubs, at least in a large conurbation such as the West Midlands, are very varied, sometimes continuing to serve as ‘the local’ for a community, sometimes being part of a variety of drinking places which between them provide people with a diversity of social niches to meet their increasingly diverse choices and preferences, and sometimes reflecting and even contributing to local community disorganisation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how young people able to trace their origins from Pakistan or India (henceforth ‘Asians’), discuss their use of, or abstention from, alcohol and tobacco in terms of religious and cultural tradition. The role of religion, ethnicity, gender and generation in the uptake or avoidance of alcohol and tobacco was explored in 19 qualitative group and individual interviews with 47 Asians aged 16–26 years and analysed in terms of pioneering and conservative forms of tradition. Religious proscriptions on alcohol and tobacco were reported to be formally gender blind, but concerns about reputation and future marriage chances, sanctioned by gossip, meant that women's behaviour was consistently more constrained than men's. Muslims’ abstinence from alcohol was tightly linked with an Islamic identity in that drinking jeopardised one's claim to being a Muslim, whereas cigarette smoking was tolerated among young men. Sikhs’ and Hindus’ avoidance of tobacco was strongly sanctioned, but smoking did not strongly jeopardise a religious identity. Sikh men's abstention indicated manly strength central to a devout identity. Some experimentation was possible out of view of the older generation, especially the aunties, but the risk of gossip damaging young women's reputations was keenly felt. While damage to women's reputations was hard to undo, men's reputations tarnished by substance use, could be compensated for by their parents’ honourable status. Discussion of tradition as innovation was rare and met with resistance. Tradition was largely experienced as a constraint to be circumvented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a research project that examined the influence of social bond variables on binge drinking in a sample of college students. A questionnaire containing items which reflected a number of social bond variables and a measure of frequency of binge drinking was administered to a sample (n=247) of college students. The results indicated that nearly all of the social bond measures were inversely related to the frequency of binge drinking. A multivariate model that used these social bond measures explained approximately one-quarter of the variance in the frequency of binge drinking for the students in this sample. Respect for authority, acceptance of conventional beliefs, and G.P.A. were particularly important predictors of binge drinking. Recommendations for ameliorating this problem and suggested directions for future research on binge drinking by college students are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a paper which focuses on the relationship between various measures of drinking and self-reported adverse and positive experiences related to drinking. Description of methodology used; Findings of surveys conducted.

Underage drinking and its associated problems have profound negative consequences for underage drinkers themselves, their families, their communities, and society as a whole, and contribute to a wide range of costly health and social problems. There is increased risk of negative consequences with heavy episodic or binge drinking. Alcohol is a factor related to approximately 4,300 deaths among underage youths in the U.S. every year. Since the mid-1980s, the nation has launched aggressive underage drinking prevention efforts at the federal, state, and local levels, and national epidemiologic data suggest that these efforts are having positive effects. For example, since 1982, alcohol-related traffic deaths among youth aged 16-20 years have declined by 79%. Evidence-based or promising strategies for reducing underage drinking include those that limit the physical, social, and economic availability of alcohol to youth, make it illegal for drivers aged <21 years to drive after drinking, and provide mechanisms for early identification of problem drinkers. Strategies may be implemented through a comprehensive prevention approach including policies and their enforcement, public awareness and education, action by community coalitions, and early brief alcohol intervention and referral programs. This paper focuses on underage drinking laws and their enforcement because these constitute perhaps the most fundamental component of efforts to limit youth access to and use of alcohol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]