Social Class and Alcohol Use by Youth: Different Drinking Behaviors, Different Associations?

Economic Circumstances in Childhood and Subsequent Substance Use in Adolescence – A Latent Class Analysis: The youth@hordaland Study

“…With regards to alcohol, previous studies have demonstrated a complex and multi-layered relationship between SES and alcohol in adolescence (Luthar, 2003; Kendler et al, 2014; Pape et al, 2017, 2018). We found that the chronic poor group were more likely to report never having tried alcohol compared to all other groups.…”

“…Numerous studies have investigated the association between different SES indicators and the use of alcohol and other substances during adolescence and young adulthood (Humensky, 2010; Patrick et al, 2012; Finch et al, 2013; Kendler et al, 2014; Latvala et al, 2014; Lui et al, 2015; Pedersen et al, 2015; Charitonidi et al, 2016; Non et al, 2016; Gomes de Matos et al, 2017; Jang et al, 2017; Pape et al, 2017, 2018; Lee et al, 2018). The nature of this association is complex, and the link seems to be dependent on both how SES is measured and operationalized, the substance in question, the type of use, and the participating adolescents’ age (Ensminger et al, 2000; Boyce et al, 2006; Currie et al, 2008; Kendler et al, 2014; Charitonidi et al, 2016; Pape et al, 2018). For example, Kendler and colleagues found that higher SES, as indicated by family income, parental education, and occupational status, predicted increased alcohol consumption in early adolescence and heavy episodic drinking in late adolescence (Kendler et al, 2014).…”

“…Two recent publications by Pape and colleagues, however, first found that both high level alcohol consumption and drunkenness were more prevalent in lower social strata (as measured by parental education) (Pape et al, 2017). In their second publication, they found that associations between low SES and different alcohol-behavior outcomes varied, where the strongest association was found for deviant and harmful drinking compared to alcohol use per se (Pape et al, 2018).…”

“…With regards to the association between individual-level SES and substance use, all of the previously published studies are, to the best of our knowledge, based on self-reported or parental-reported SES (Humensky, 2010; Patrick et al, 2012; Finch et al, 2013; Kendler et al, 2014; Latvala et al, 2014; Lui et al, 2015; Charitonidi et al, 2016; Non et al, 2016; Gomes de Matos et al, 2017; Jang et al, 2017; Pape et al, 2017, 2018; Lee et al, 2018). The use of self-reported SES may be prone to bias and systematic missing data (Ensminger et al, 2000; Svedberg et al, 2016).…”

“…Furthermore, most previous studies only measure SES once (Finch et al, 2013; Charitonidi et al, 2016; Collins, 2016; Gomes de Matos et al, 2017; Pape et al, 2017, 2018; Lee et al, 2018). In contrast, few studies have examined how changes in financial circumstances affect adolescent alcohol and substance use.…”