Testing a social ecological model of alcohol use: the California 50-city study

Abstract

Background and aims Social ecological theories suggest that greater community alcohol availability and individual drinker characteristics should jointly affect drinking patterns and the use of drinking contexts. We assessed relationships of demographic and personality characteristics of individual drinkers and environmental characteristics at the city-level to measures of drinking patterns and use of drinking contexts. Design Multilevel statistical analyses of archival and survey data from 50 cities in California, USA. Settings An ecological sample of 50 geographically distinct cities with populations from 50,000 to 500,000 persons. Participants General population telephone survey of 8,553 adults 18 years of age and older stratified by cities. Measurements Archival data on city-level alcohol outlet densities were combined with individual survey data identifying community conditions, individual demographic and psychosocial characteristics, frequencies of use of drinking contexts and drinking patterns. Findings Greater on-premise outlet densities were related to greater drinking frequencies (b=2.967, z=4.688, p<0.001) and volumes (b=0.627, z=3.394, p<0.001), and use of on-premises drinking places (bars, b=0.334, z=2.645, p<0.006, and restaurants, b=0.171, z=2.770, p=0.005). Individual demographic and personality characteristics were related to drinking and use of drinking contexts. For example, greater impulsivity was related to greater drinking frequencies (b=0.200, z=2.088, p=0.023) and logged quantities (b=0.015, z=2.009, p=0.026), and proportionately more drinking at bars (b=0.033, z=2.016, p=0.026) and parties (b=0.171, z=2.770, p=0.004). Conclusion Community availability of alcohol and individual drinker characteristics appear to act jointly to affect drinking levels and use of drinking contexts in California, USA. These effects may increase risks related to drinking in some contexts (e.g., bars) much more than others (e.g., at friends’ or relatives’ homes).

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

“…Of importance, however, none of these differences was statistically signifi cant, and the coverage of these measures across cities was good. Resampling using different starting seeds provided much the same results, offering further evidence regarding the robustness and representativeness of these sampled places (Gruenewald et al, 2014).…”

“…A random-digit-dial household telephone survey of 8,553 adults in the 50 cities was conducted in 2009 to assess levels of alcohol consumption and related problems (Gruenewald et al, 2014). The number of adult respondents per city ranged from 109 to 204 (M = 171).…”

Bias in child maltreatment self-reports using interactive voice response (IVR)

“…These lists were supplemented with any vendor lists of households with a child under the age of thirteen and then de-duplicated against each other before being randomized. List-assisted sampling combines random digit dialing with vendor-acquired listings in order to more effectively target sampling areas within a geographic area, such as are needed for the current study design (Gruenewald, Remer, & LaScala, 2014). When compared to traditional RDD techniques, listed samples are relatively unbiased, not highly correlated with socioeconomic status, and can be mitigated with the use of post-stratification weighting procedures (Brick, Waksber, Kulp, & Starer, 1995; Boyle, Bucuvalas, Piekarski, & Weiss, 2009; Kempf & Remington, 2007; Tucker, Lepkowski, & Piekarshi, 2002).…”

Person-Environment Interactions and Adolescent Substance Use: The Role of Sensation Seeking and Perceived Neighborhood Risk

“…This broad taxonomy mirrors ecologically focused theories of human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1977), arguing that children's families, peers, schools, neighborhoods, as well as larger social conditions interact with children's individual characteristics to shape a range of developmental outcomes over time. Thus, better understanding of the "social ecology" (Cook, 2003;Ennett et al, 2008;Gruenewald, Remer, & LaScala, 2014) of early substance use, and of both the unique and combined etiological contributions of individual and environmental risk factors to adolescent substance use, is imperative in preventing, delaying, and treating these behaviors. The current study advanced such theoretical approaches, by asking how early personality traits combine with neighborhood environments to influence early substance use.…”