'More options…less time' in the 'hustle culture' of 'generation sensible': Individualization and drinking decline among twenty-first century young adults

Sipping a sustainable life: Exploring drivers and barriers in consumer attitudes toward non or low alcoholic spirits

Alcohol consumption continues to be prevalent and is on the rise in many countries, posing a grave risk for the health and wellbeing of millions and creating a strain on health services worldwide. A hopeful trend has emerged, however, as consumers' growing preference for healthier, sustainable lifestyles has led traditional alcoholic brands to innovate, launching reduced or non-alcoholic (NoLo) options. This aligns with the SDGs and is reflected in NoLo spirits representing four of Spain's top ten disruptive innovations of 2022. This paper uses a mixed methodology in a qualitative-quantitative sequential approach to gain insight into this phenomenon. The study involved 13 in-depth interviews with HoReCa (an acronym for Hotels, Restaurants, and Caterings) professionals and four focus groups among consumers. Second, behavioral reasoning theory (BRT) was used in a quantitative study aiming to explore motivations for and against consuming NoLo spirits. Data from a survey of 620 participants was conducted and analyzed using SEM-PLS to measure the antecedents of consumer's behavioral intention towards NoLo spirits and to gauge the potential for marketing opportunities. The research reveals that the purchase intention of NoLo spirits is strongly related to health consciousness, while enjoying the effects of alcohol for fun and entertainment, and the social pressure to drink hinders its consumption. In addition, it was found that "reasons for" are more substantial than "reasons against" the consumption of those beverages, differing significantly by age group. Results offer implications for theory and practice, including recommendations for practitioners and regulators willing to improve sustainability in the industry. Further, this paper helps augment the innovation adoption literature by using BRT in the paradoxical context of consumers' increasing alcohol abuse despite their professed attempts to adopt healthier lifestyles.

Trends in binge drinking in the United States by LGBTQ+ identity, gender, and age, 2014-2022

BACKGROUND

People who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer/questioning (LGBTQ+) have higher rates of risky drinking than their cisgender, heterosexual peers. It is unknown to what extent recent age and gender trends in binge drinking vary by LGBTQ+ identity.

METHODS

We used nationally representative, serial, cross-sectional surveys from men and women in the 2014-2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (N = 2,099,959) to examine trends in past-month binge drinking by LGBTQ+ identity, gender, and age (18-29, 30-44, 45 and older). We estimated stratum-specific prevalence ratios for an average 1-year increase in prevalence of past-month binge drinking using survey-weighted log-binomial models, controlling for education, race/ethnicity, marriage, and parenthood status.

RESULTS

In the beginning of the study period, LGBTQ+ women endorsed binge drinking at higher prevalences than their cisgender, heterosexual peers (i.e., 2014 predicted probability for women ages 30-44: 0.22 for LGBTQ+, 0.15 for cisgender, heterosexual). LGBTQ+ disparities in women's drinking attenuated over the study period among women in midlife (30-44 age group) due to increases in binge drinking among cisgender, heterosexual women (Prevalence Ratio [PR]: 1.025, 95% CI 1.018-1.033). Among men, we saw no evidence of LGBTQ+ disparities in binge drinking probabilities or in binge drinking trends across all age groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Disparities in mid-life binge drinking between LGBTQ+ and cisgender women have begun to diminish. These disparities are closing not because LGBTQ+ women are binge drinking less, but because cisgender, heterosexual women in midlife are binge drinking more.

Contemporary dental student professionalism: moving towards a macro-level perspective

Defining professionalism and developing educational interventions that foster and assess student professionalism are integral to dental education. Nevertheless, conceptual, methodological and pedagogic differences define the academic field, leaving students, educators and the profession itself struggling to make meaningful progress on how best to elicit and monitor dental student professionalism. This article proposes that more progress can be made on this important issue when a contextualised, sociological assessment of dentistry and dental professionalism is undertaken. We contend that identifying some of the socio-cultural demands in UK dental students' lives, and acknowledging how these pressures shape their interactions with the UK dental education system, provides a nuanced and contemporaneous understanding of what it means to be an oral health care professional at a time of social and health care upheaval. Dental educators can use this insight to work towards being more understanding of and responsive to dental student professional development.

Understanding youth drinking decline: Similarity and change in the function and social meaning of alcohol use (and non-use) in adolescent cohorts 20 years apart

INTRODUCTION

Qualitative research aimed at understanding the decline in youth drinking has so far been hampered by a lack of baseline data for comparison. This New Zealand study overcomes this limitation by comparing archival qualitative data collected at the height of youth drinking (1999-2001) with contemporary data collected for this study (June-October 2022). The aim is to explore changes in the function and social meaning of alcohol use (and non-use) for two cohorts about 20 years apart.

METHODS

Both archival and contemporary data were collected from 14 to 17 year old secondary school students (years 10-12) through individual and small-group/pair interviews in matched suburban co-ed schools. Interviews explored friendships, lifestyles, romantic relationships and experiences and perceptions of substance use and non-use.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Comparative analysis highlighted changes that may help to explain the decline in youth drinking, including an increased value placed on personal choice and acceptance of diversity; decreased face-to-face socialising and the emergence of social media as a central feature of adolescent social life, perhaps displacing key functions of drinking and partying; increased pervasiveness of risk discourses and increased awareness of health and social risks of alcohol; and increased framing of alcohol use as a coping mechanism by both drinkers and non-drinkers.

CONCLUSIONS

Collectively, these changes appear to have shifted the social position of drinking from an almost compulsory component of adolescent social life in 1999-2001, to an optional activity that many contemporary adolescents perceive to have high risks and few benefits.

Risk and restraint-The key to understanding the decreasing use of alcohol for young people in high income countries?

INTRODUCTION

In this article we seek to understand the changing social position of alcohol use for young people in Australia by identifying how alcohol has become framed as posing a significant risk to their bodies and futures.

METHODS

Forty interviews were conducted with young people aged 18-21 years from Melbourne, Australia, who had previously identified as light drinkers or abstainers. Drawing on insights from contemporary sociologies of risk, we explored how risk was discussed as a governing concept that shaped young people's views of alcohol, and how it encouraged or necessitated risk-avoidance in daily life.

RESULTS

Participants drew on a range of risk discourses in framing their abstention or moderate drinking along the lines of health, wellness, wisdom and productivity. They reiterated social constructions of heavy or regular alcohol use as irresponsible, threatening and potentially addictive. The focus on personal responsibility was striking in most accounts. Participants seemed to have routinised ways of practicing risk avoidance and coordinated drinking practices with other practices in their everyday life, with alcohol therefore 'competing for time'.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Our findings endorse the idea that discourses of risk and individual responsibility shape the contemporary socio-cultural value of alcohol for young people. Risk avoidance has become routine and is manifested through the practice of restraint and control. This appears particular to high-income countries like Australia, where concerns about young people's futures and economic security are increasing, and where neoliberal politics are the foundations of governmental ideology.

A review of factors influencing drinking behaviours in young Australian adults using a behavioural framework approach

ISSUES

Young adults (aged 18-24 years) are more likely to binge drink than any other age group in Australia. These behaviours expose young adults to possible adverse events, with potential for acute harms.

APPROACH

A behavioural framework (capability, opportunity, motivation-behaviour [COM-B model]) was used to explore factors that influence the drinking behaviours of young Australian adults. Potential studies were identified by searching four online data bases. Content pertaining to factors moderating young adults' alcohol consumption behaviours (either increasing or decreasing alcohol consumption) in an Australian population was extracted. Factors were then categorised/mapped into the six sub-components of the COM-B model. A narrative synthesis/discussion was subsequently undertaken.

KEY FINDINGS

Factors increasing or reducing alcohol consumption behaviours were identified across all components of the COM-B model. Overall, alcohol consumption behaviours appear strongly influenced by physical and social opportunities, and young adults have reflective and automatic motivations (i.e., habitual processes, emotional responding and analytical decisional making that directs behaviour) to consume alcohol with purpose and/or reason.

IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION

The use of a behavioural framework (e.g., the COM-B model) facilitates an integrated understanding of factors influencing alcohol consumption behaviours. Future harm minimisation strategies need to consider the interrelated, contemporary factors underpinning a young adult's decision to consume alcohol within the context of modern Australian society.

Is the association between psychological distress and risky alcohol consumption shifting over time? An age-period-cohort analysis of the Australian population

This study explored age, period, and cohort effects associated with trends in psychological distress and risky alcohol consumption. Data came from 108,536 Australians aged 14-79 years old from birth cohorts between 1925-2005, endorsing past year alcohol use in the 2004-2019 Australian National Drug Strategy Household Surveys. Risky alcohol consumption was split into exceeding weekly national drinking limits (>10 drinks per week) or daily limits (>4 drinks per day). An extended hierarchical age-period-cohort model was used to investigate differential effects on trends in psychological distress. Psychological distress showed an inverse U-shape throughout the lifespan with a peak in distress at age 60. Exceeding weekly alcohol limits was positively related to psychological distress prior to age 40 while exceeding daily alcohol limits remained positively related across the lifespan. There were relatively flat period effects, with no alcohol-related changes in psychological distress across years. Lastly, psychological distress gradually increased across birth cohorts until a notable spike among Australians born from 1980-2005 alongside weakening alcohol-related cohort effects. Overall, the recent increases in psychological distress did not appear to be meaningfully explained by risky alcohol consumption though risky alcohol consumption remained an important factor to consider alongside psychological distress.

Through the wine glass: How biographical midlife transitions and women's affective interpretations interact with alcohol consumption

BACKGROUND

Women during midlife are consuming larger quantities of alcohol than any other age group of women and any other generation of midlife women previously. This is concerning given alcohol related-health risks coalesce with age-related health risks for women, in particular, breast cancer.

METHODS

In-depth interviews with 50 Australian midlife women (aged 45-64) from different social classes explored women's personal accounts of midlife transitions and their descriptions of the role of alcohol in navigating these life experiences; both daily occurrences as well as significant moments in the life course.

RESULTS

Our findings point to the complex, confusing and co-existing biographical transitions women experience during midlife (generational, embodied/physiological and material changes) that sharpen a role for alcohol in women's lives and are nuanced by social class (volumes of social, economic and cultural capital). We pay close attention to women's affective interpretations of these transitions and ways alcohol is used to feel robust in navigating daily life or easing their prospective futures. Critically, for women living with limited access to capital, and who could not 'measure up' to social ideals by comparison with the achievements and trajectories of other midlife women, alcohol reconciled their disappointment. Our exploration shows how the social class conditions that shape how women make sense of their transitions through midlife might be differently shaped to enable different options forreducing drinking.

CONCLUSIONS

Policy must address the social and emotional concerns women experience through midlife transitions that give alcohol a worthwhile place in their lives. A first step might be responding to the absence of community and leisure spaces for midlife women especially those that do not integrate alcohol, with benefits including addressing loneliness, isolation and feeling invisible, and enabling positive constructions of midlife identities. Structural barriers to participation and feelings of worth must be removed for women who lack social, cultural and economic resources.

Decline in youth drinking in high-income settings: Implications for public health in low-income countries

Declining drinking among youth in many high-income countries has attracted scholarly attention and debates. Still, researchers are yet to globalize such research or examine its public health implications for low-resource settings. This commentary has two interrelated purposes. First, using evidence from Nigeria, it highlights how declining youth drinking in high-income countries may impact public health in low-income countries. Second, it highlights the necessity for research to examine youth drinking behaviours simultaneously worldwide. The declining drinking trends among young people in high-income countries have occurred simultaneously with global alcohol corporations being more aggressive in low-income countries like Nigeria. Relatedly, alcohol corporations may employ evidence regarding declines in drinking to argue against implementing stringent policies or other effective interventions in Nigeria (and other low-income settings), claiming their apparent success in the falling drinking trends in high-income settings. The article argues that research on the drinking decline among young people should be globalized because without commensurate attempts to examine their drinking behaviours/trends worldwide simultaneously, public and/or global health may be harmed for the reasons explored in this article.

Generational shifts in attitudes and beliefs about alcohol: An age-period-cohort approach

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS

Population level alcohol consumption has declined markedly in Australia in the past two decades, with distinct generational patterns. The underlying reason for this shift remains unclear and there has been little work assessing how attitudes and beliefs about alcohol have shifted in population sub-groups.

DESIGN AND METHODS

Using seven waves of survey data spanning 19 years (2001-2019, n = 166,093 respondents aged 14 +), we assess age, time-period and birth cohort effects on trends in four measures of alcohol attitudes (disapproval of regular alcohol use, perceptions of safe drinking levels for men and women and perception that alcohol causes the most deaths of any drug in Australia).

RESULTS

There were steady increases in period effects for perceived safe drinking levels (especially for men) and belief that alcohol causes the most deaths. Disapproval of regular use has been stable at the population level, but there are marked cohort differences, with early and recent cohorts more likely than others to disapprove of regular alcohol use.

DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

These findings point to a broad lowering of perceived safe levels of drinking across the population alongside a sharp increase in disapproval of drinking for recent cohorts, potentially contributing to the reductions in drinking that have been reported in these cohorts.

Assessment of the Prevalence of Alcoholic Beverage Consumption and Knowledge of the Impact of Alcohol on Health in a Group of Polish Young Adults Aged 18-35: A Cross-Sectional Study

Alcoholic beverages are widely consumed worldwide, especially by young adults. Their excessive consumption is associated with numerous health, social and financial damages. The level of knowledge of young adults about the health effects of consuming alcoholic beverages is low, and research in this area is conducted on small, unrepresentative groups. This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the prevalence of alcoholic beverage consumption and the level of knowledge about the impact of ethyl alcohol on health in a group of people aged 18−35. The survey results indicate that the majority of respondents regularly consume alcoholic beverages (94.6%), and they are at a low risk of excessive consumption (p < 0.0001). The most frequently chosen alcoholic beverage in the studied group was beer, and the least chosen one was vodka. The main motive for reaching for alcoholic beverages was the desire to improve mood. Respondents did not indicate significant changes in alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic, but participants in the high-risk group more often indicated an increase in alcohol consumption (p = 0.0025). The analysis of the level of knowledge showed that the participants in the study had an average or low level of knowledge about the effects of ethanol on health, with no significant relationships between the study groups. The obtained results indicate a strong need for the continuous education of young people on the effects of the excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages on the body, with particular emphasis on the consequences of using alcohol as a mood-enhancing agent.

Sober Curiosity: A Qualitative Study Exploring Women's Preparedness to Reduce Alcohol by Social Class

BACKGROUND

Urgent action is required to identify socially acceptable alcohol reduction options for heavy-drinking midlife Australian women. This study represents innovation in public health research to explore how current trends in popular wellness culture toward 'sober curiosity' (i.e., an interest in what reducing alcohol consumption would or could be like) and normalising non-drinking could increase women's preparedness to reduce alcohol consumption.

METHODS

Qualitative interviews were undertaken with 27 midlife Australian women (aged 45-64) living in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney in different social class groups (working, middle and affluent-class) to explore their perceptions of sober curiosity.

RESULTS

Women were unequally distributed across social-classes and accordingly the social-class analysis considered proportionally the volume of data at particular codes. Regardless, social-class patterns in women's preparedness to reduce alcohol consumption were generated through data analysis. Affluent women's preparedness to reduce alcohol consumption stemmed from a desire for self-regulation and to retain control; middle-class women's preparedness to reduce alcohol was part of performing civility and respectability and working-class women's preparedness to reduce alcohol was highly challenging. Options are provided for alcohol reduction targeting the social contexts of consumption (the things that lead midlife women to feel prepared to reduce drinking) according to levels of disadvantage.

CONCLUSION

Our findings reinstate the importance of recognising social class in public health disease prevention; validating that socially determined factors which shape daily living also shape health outcomes and this results in inequities for women in the lowest class positions to reduce alcohol and related risks.