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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]

Abstract: Background and Aims: Studies have linked adolescent alcohol use with adverse consequences in adulthood, yet it is unclear how strong the associations are and to what extent they may be due to confounding. Our aim was to estimate the strength of association between different patterns of adolescent drinking and longer‐term psychosocial harms taking into account individual, family and peer factors. Design: Participant‐level data were integrated from four long‐running longitudinal studies: Australian Temperament Project, Christchurch Health and Development Study, Mater Hospital and University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy and Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study. Setting: Australia and New Zealand. Participants: Participants were assessed on multiple occasions between ages 13 and 30 years (from 1991 to 2012). Number of participants varied (up to n = 9453) by analysis. Measurements: Three patterns of alcohol use (frequent, heavy episodic and problem drinking) were assessed prior to age 17. Thirty outcomes were assessed to age 30 spanning substance use and related problems, antisocial behaviour, sexual risk‐taking, accidents, socio‐economic functioning, mental health and partner relationships. Findings: After covariate adjustment, weekly drinking prior to age 17 was associated with a two‐ to threefold increase in the odds of binge drinking [odds ratio (OR) = 2.14; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.57–2.90], drink driving (OR = 2.78; 95% CI = 1.84–4.19), alcohol‐related problems (OR = 3.04; 95% CI = 1.90–4.84) and alcohol dependence (OR = 3.30; 95% CI = 1.69–6.47) in adulthood. Frequency of drinking accounted for a greater proportion of the rate of most adverse outcomes than the other measures of alcohol use. Associations between frequent, heavy episodic and problem drinking in adolescence and most non‐alcohol outcomes were largely explained by shared risk factors for adolescent alcohol use and poor psychosocial functioning. Conclusions: Frequency of adolescent drinking predicts substance use problems in adulthood as much as, and possibly more than, heavy episodic and problem drinking independent of individual, family and peer predictors of those outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Suicide is a leading cause of death in Australian males aged 18 to 55. Non-fatal suicidal behaviours and thoughts are indicators of increased risk for future suicide. Suicidal behaviour is complex and multi-determined. Research supports the involvement of stressful life events in suicide and suicidal behaviour, however the evidence regarding suicidal thoughts is less developed. This study investigates stressful life events in relation to suicidal ideation in a large cohort of adult males recruited into Ten to Men, the Australian Longitudinal Study on Male Health.Methods: Baseline data from a national cohort of 13, 884 males aged 18-55 years on suicidal behaviour, psychiatric disorder and life events was used. Multivariable logistic regressions were conducted with current suicidal ideation as the outcome and 12 month life events, 12 month depression, anxiety and harmful/hazardous alcohol use, and socio-demographics as covariates. Further logistic regression models investigated the relative risk of life stress alone, depression/alcohol/anxiety alone and co-occurring life stress and depression/alcohol/anxiety.Results: In multivariable models there was an independent contribution to suicidal ideation for six of 24 life events (ORs 1.27-1.95), 12 month depression (OR 4.49) harmful alcohol use (OR 1.38) and anxiety disorders (OR 1.27). Life events co-occurring with depression (OR 10.3) was higher risk than either alone (depression OR 6.6; life stress OR 2.6). There was a lesser effect for co-occurrence in the anxiety and harmful alcohol use models.Conclusion: Life events appear to be related to suicidal ideation independent of depression, anxiety and harmful alcohol use in adult males, however if life events occur in the context of depression that risk is substantially increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The desire of the governing class of colonial New South Wales to reduce drunkenness among the working classes coincided with the desire to create a wine industry. This intersection occurred in legislation encouraging substitution of light wine for beer and spirits. The notion that encouraging production and consumption of colonial wine could create sobriety arose from faith in the transformative qualities of wine. This faith can be traced from influential philosopher Adam Smith's conviction in Wealth of Nations (1776) that people who lived in proximity to wine regions in France were among the most sober Europeans to the enactment of a policy of substitution in the New South Wales Parliament in the 1860s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To describe the use of marijuana and alcohol among Arabic- and Vietnamese-speaking senior school students compared with English-speaking background senior school students in Sydney Australia.Method: A quantitative survey of 2573 school students attending Years 10 and 11 from 12 high schools with a high Vietnamese and Arabic population was conducted in Sydney in 1998. Self-reported marijuana use, school and cultural background information was collected.Results: Students from an English-speaking background, both males and females, had almost double the prevalence of marijuana use (once or more) during their lifetime (48.3 and 43.6%), the 12 months (40.9 and 36.3%) and 1 month prior to survey administration (23.1 and 13.4%) than the group with the second highest frequency of use (students of European and other backgrounds). Female Vietnamese (7.3% lifetime use) and Arabic students (8.6% lifetime use) had the lowest marijuana use rates, which were less than half that of male Vietnamese (23.5% lifetime use) and Arabic students (28% lifetime use). A similar pattern was found for three types of alcohol use. Spending three or more evenings a week out with friends was associated with higher alcohol use for Vietnamese students (relative risk ratio of 2.76).Conclusions: These results confirm lower marijuana and alcohol use among students from Vietnamese- and Arabic-speaking backgrounds compared with students from an English-speaking background. Harm minimization strategies may be learned from some migrant communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]