Supranational changes in drinking patterns: factors in explanatory models of substantial and parallel social change

Abstract

T noted in 1981, in the wake of a 30-year rise in drinking in European and other societies with a strong temperance history. In the last 30 years, there has been a long fall in consumption in southern European wine cultures. Now there is a sustained drop in drinking among youth in most of Europe, Australia and north America. Can such changes be understood in a common frame? In terms of inexorable historical phenomena or forces, like Kondratieff waves? In terms of a dialectic between market interests and government policies to limit public harm? In terms of generational shifts, with a younger generation reacting against the habits of an older? Such conceptual models for understanding the dynamics of social change are examined and compared in terms of their potential contribution in explaining how substantial changes in levels of consumption occur, and when and how they are roughly in concert in different societies.

Similar countries, similar factors? Studying the decline of heavy episodic drinking in adolescents in Finland, Norway and Sweden

“…Several mechanisms of the change in alcohol consumption in general and youth drinking in particular have been discussed. The most promising explanations are changes in the social position of alcohol, understood as a social reaction to the negative effects of alcohol [65], but also wide‐ranging changes due to the digital revolution with the resulting extensive change in social interaction and communication between parents and children [65,66]. Although the present research contributes to the knowledge on the decline in youth drinking, the mechanisms of change are still not fully understood and need further consideration.…”

An examination of the extent to which drinking motives and problem alcohol consumption vary as a function of deprivation, gender and age

“…While the sample size was relatively large for research of this nature, its cross-sectional nature prevents us from inferring causality. With recent research consistently indicating that in many countries older people are now drinking more alcohol than younger people [51,52], and because most drinking motives work has been cross-sectional to date, future research is required to examine longitudinally how drinking motives shift over time as people transition into different life stages [53,54]. Second, concerns regarding the veracity of self-report measures [55,56] should be noted in the context of our reliance on self-report data, which is also likely to have implications of shared method variance.…”

Decline in adolescent drinking: Some possible explanations

“…Insight into the driving forces behind the decline may be important in order to maintain this progress and to take action to further curb alcohol use by youth [2]. Several possible explanatory factors have been suggested [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10], and a growing number of studies have pursued the issue empirically [6]. However, why youth drinking has declined is still far from clear.…”