Relationships Between Social Host Laws and Underage Drinking: Findings From a Study of 50 California Cities

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective: Many states and local communities have enacted social host (SH) laws to reduce underage drinking in private settings. However, little is known about whether such laws are effective. This study examined relationships between city SH laws and underage drinking in general and at parties in private settings. Method: SH policy data were collected for 50 California cities in 2009, and SH policies were rated for comprehensiveness and stringency. Annual telephone interviews were conducted with a cohort of 1,483 adolescents (ages 13-16 at Wave 1) from 2009 to 2011 to assess past-year alcohol use, heavy drinking, and drinking at parties. Multilevel analyses were fi rst conducted for the total sample to examine relationships between SH laws and adolescents' past-year drinking, with other city and individual characteristics controlled for. Parallel analyses were then conducted for a subsample of 667 youth who had reported any past-year drinking. Results: SH policy ratings were unrelated to any of the past-year drinking outcomes for the total sample of adolescents. However, among past-year drinkers, a stronger SH policy was inversely related to drinking at parties (β = -.06, p < .05) but was unrelated to past-year alcohol use and heavy drinking in general. There were no moderating effects of SH policy on change in adolescents' past-year drinking over the 3-year period. Conclusions: Local SH policies that include strict liability and civil penalties that are imposed administratively may be associated with less frequent underage drinking in private settings, particularly among adolescents who have already initiated alcohol use. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 75, 901-907, 2014)

Identifying Strategies to Limit Youth Drinking in the Home

“…Adolescents were selected and recruited through a two-stage process. First, a subset of 24 cities was selected from an existing geographically diverse sample of 50 noncontiguous California cities (population range: 50,000 to 500,000) Paschall et al, 2014). The 24 cities were selected based on high levels of underage drinking, drinking and driving, and alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes using data from various sources, including the California Healthy Kids Survey (WestEd, 2016), a survey of more than 8,000 adults conducted by the Prevention Research Center , and the California Statewide Integrated Traffic Reporting System (California Highway Patrol, 2016).…”

Reducing Harm Through Evidence‐Based Alcohol Policies: Challenges and Options

“…Paschall, Lipperman‐Kreda, Grube, and Thomas () noted, for example, that effectiveness of social host laws in California in preventing or reducing under‐age drinking depend “not only on the content of the laws but also on public awareness and enforcement.” Likewise, Jones‐Webb, Toomey, Lenk, Nelson, and Erickson () found that social host policies were more likely to be implemented in communities that prioritized prevention of underage drinking and had a full‐time law enforcement position devoted to underage drinking. Policymakers, the media, and the general public need to become aware of the scope of harm from alcohol, the relatively low levels of consumption at which risk is elevated, and that it is not only the patterns of dependent drinkers that contribute to population‐level problems.…”

Do Juvenile Curfew Laws Reduce Underage Drinking?

“…For example, Paschall et al (2014) found that a stronger social host policy did not reduce past-year alcohol use or heavy drinking in general among past-year drinkers but was inversely related to drinking at parties. Holder et al (2000) found decreases in the number of nighttime injury crashes (10%), the number of crashes in which the driver had been drinking (6%), and the number of assault injuries observed in emergency departments (43%) in three California communities with environmental interventions compared with three comparison cities.…”