Tavern going in Canada: a national survey of regulars at public drinking establishments

Religiosity, race/ethnicity, and alcohol use behaviors in the United States

BACKGROUND

Religiosity is a protective factor against many health problems, including alcohol use disorders (AUD). Studies suggest that religiosity has greater buffering effects on mental health problems among US Blacks and Hispanics than Whites. However, whether race/ethnic differences exist in the associations of religiosity, alcohol consumption and AUD is unclear.

METHOD

Using 2004-2005 NESARC data (analytic n = 21 965), we examined the relationship of public religiosity (i.e. frequency of service attendance, religious social group size), and intrinsic religiosity (i.e. importance of religious/spiritual beliefs) to frequency of alcohol use and DSM-IV AUD in non-Hispanic (NH) Blacks, Hispanics and NH Whites, and whether associations differed by self-identified race/ethnicity.

RESULTS

Only public religiosity was related to AUD. Frequency of religious service attendance was inversely associated with AUD (NH Whites β: -0.103, p 0.05) or Hispanics (β: -0.002, p > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

US adults reporting greater public religiosity were at lower risk for AUD. Public religiosity may be particularly important among NH Blacks, while intrinsic religiosity may be particularly important among NH Whites, and among Hispanics who frequently attend religious services. Findings may be explained by variation in drinking-related norms observed among these groups generally, and in the context of specific religious institutions.

When at risk? Drinking contexts and heavy drinking in the Montreal adult population

The purpose of this study is to identify the characteristics of contexts associated with heavier alcohol intake. Data come from a telephone survey carried out in April 1993 with a random sample of the metropolitan Montreal adult population (Quebec, Canada). Drinking contexts were investigated with regard to the situational setting (circumstances, time and location) and the relational setting (drinking partners’ relationship and sociodemographic similarity) characterizing the drinking occasion. Having five or more drinks per occasion, linked by many studies to alcohol-related problems, was deemed to be heavy drinking. The results of the logistic regressions performed reveal that for men under 25 years old, drinking with other men is the only contextual characteristic associated positively with heavy drinking, while for men age 25 and over, situational characteristics as well as relational characteristics are associated positively with heavy drinking. For women, heavy drinking is only weakly associated with contextual characteristics.

Reducing HIV Risks in the Places Where People Drink: Prevention Interventions in Alcohol Venues

Apart from individual alcohol drinking behavior, the context or places where people drink play a significant role in HIV transmission risk. In this paper, we review the research that has been conducted on alcohol venues to identify the social and structural factors (e.g., social norms, sexual behavior) that are associated with HIV risk in these places, to review HIV prevention interventions based in alcohol venues, and to discuss appropriate methodologies for alcohol venue research. Alcohol venues are defined here as places that sell or serve alcohol for onsite consumption, including bars, bottle stores, nightclubs, wine shops, and informal shebeens. Despite the many established HIV risk factors at play in alcohol venues, limited prevention strategies have been implemented in such places. A total of 11 HIV prevention interventions or programs were identified. HIV prevention interventions in alcohol venues may be conducted at the individual, social, or structural level. However, multilevel interventions that target more than one level appear to lead to the most sustainable behavior change. Strategies to incorporate alcohol venues in biomedical prevention strategies including antiretroviral therapy for alcohol users are also discussed.

Parenthood, drinking locations and heavy drinking

This study tests the hypothesis that the relationship between parenthood and heavy drinking is mediated by drinking locations. The analysis is based on a random sample of 4180 female and 3630 male Canadian drinkers aged between 18 and 55 years old. A multiple mediator model is tested. Results show that the parental role may be associated with variation in where people drink, and where people drink may be associated with variation in heavy drinking. For women, parenthood is related to a reduction in heavy drinking associated with a reduction of drinking occasions that occur at bars, offset to some extent by the fact that drinking in restaurants is also less common among mothers than non-mothers. For men, parenthood is related to a reduction in heavy drinking partly because fathers more often drink at friends' homes and the proportion of drinking occasions that occur at bars is smaller among fathers than non-fathers. The results of this study correspond with a refined version of the opportunity perspective. Given the nature of the processes by which parenthood is related to heavy drinking, alcohol consumption needs to be understood through a perspective that includes both individual and contextual factors.

Parenthood, alcohol intake, and drinking contexts: occasio furem facit

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to assess whether the effect of parenthood on alcohol intake varies according to the context in which the drinking act occurs.

METHOD

The data were drawn from the Canadian Addiction Survey, a national telephone survey conducted in 2004. The analytical sample included 1,079 drinking occasions nested in 498 female drinkers and 926 drinking occasions nested in 403 male drinkers between 18 and 55 years of age. A multilevel linear statistical model was used to estimate the variance related to the drinking occasion (Level 1) and to the parental role (Level 2).

RESULTS

Parenthood was not associated with alcohol intake per occasion. Drinking context variables brought great explanatory power to the study of alcohol intake, but, overall, the effect of parenthood on alcohol intake did not vary according to the context in which drinking occurs. Only one interaction between the parental role and contextual characteristics was found.

CONCLUSIONS

Men's and women's alcohol intake within drinking contexts is more likely to be influenced by the immediate context in which drinking occurs than by their parental role. The explanation for alcohol behaviors within the general Canadian population may lie as much in the situation as in the person.

Alcohol consumption: a different kind of Canadian mosaic

OBJECTIVES

To determine the way Canadians consume alcohol beyond drinking amounts and to verify if the drinking act is similar across provinces given that, in Canada, alcohol policies come under provincial jurisdiction.

METHODS

Subjects were 10,466 current drinkers (5,743 women and 4,723 men) aged 18 to 76 years, who participated in the GENACIS Canada study.

RESULTS

In Canada, there are three main patterns of consuming alcohol. Maritimers tend to drink more per occasion, report more binge drinking and largely prefer beer. In the Prairies, people tend to drink less, to drink less often during a meal and to favour spirits. Finally, drinkers from Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia drink more often, drink wine more often, drink spirits less often, and drink more often during a meal than drinkers from the other provinces. The same patterns are observed in both sexes, although the differences across provinces are less pronounced among women.

CONCLUSION

Knowledge about these three drinking groups should be used to increase the legitimacy and effectiveness of alcohol policies in general.

Associating leisure with drinking: current research and future directions

This paper has two components: (1) a survey of current research relating drinking with leisure, and (2) suggestions for future studies in the area. A total of 43 relevant journal articles published between 1980 and 1994 were located via an on-line search. Results of these studies generally fall under one of the following themes: (1) alcohol is an integral part of leisure experience, (2) drinking is an impediment to leisure, (3) participation in active leisure reduces alcohol use/abuse, and (4) drinking and leisure have no relations. Overall, it was found that current research suffered an overdependence on special populations and a lack of robust instruments measuring either drinking or leisure. Suggestions for future research were provided, such as better research design and greater integration of leisure into alcohol research.

Social Organization in Bars: Implications for Tobacco Control Policy

This paper considers social roles and relationships of the patrons, staff and owners of bars as critical factors determining adherence to public health policies, and specifically California's smokefree workplace law. Specific elements of social organization in bars affecting health policy include the community within which the bar is set, the unique identity the bar creates, the bar staff and patrons who enact this identity, and their bar society. These elements were found to contribute to the development of power relations within the bar and solidarity against the outside world, resulting in either resistance to or compliance with smokefree workplace policy.

Drinking, personality, and bar environmental characteristics as predictors of involvement in barroom aggression

Theoretical approaches to alcohol and violence have emphasized three interrelated domains of influence: the situational context, aggression-facilitating characteristics of individuals, and the impact of alcohol consumption. We examined these three domains as predictors of experiencing violence in the barroom setting. Participants were recruited through one of two phone surveys or through newspaper advertisements and classified into one of three groups: Experienced Bar Violence (EBV), Observed Bar Violence (OBV), and No Bar Violence (NBV). They completed questionnaires assessing individual difference and alcohol use variables, and an interview that assessed characteristics of their usual bar. The results suggested that individual difference and alcohol variables distinguished men in the EBV group from men in the OBV and NBV groups. However, women in the EBV group were distinguished from women in the NBV group by the characteristics of their usual bar and by the alcohol variables, but were distinguished from the OBV group only in terms of individual difference variables. The implications of these findings with respect to the influence of alcohol on barroom violence are discussed.

Effect of religion and religiosity on alcohol use in a college student sample

Two hundred and sixty-three alcohol using college students completed a questionnaire on their levels of alcohol use, problems with alcohol use, reasons for drinking, perceptions of control over drinking, impulsivity, venturesomeness, irrational beliefs, neuroticism, expectations of alcohol effects, depression, social norms, religious affiliation and intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity. Analyses of variance revealed that students with no religious affiliation reported significantly higher levels of drinking frequency and quantity, getting drunk, celebratory reasons for drinking and perceived drinking norms than those of either Catholic or Protestant religious affiliation, while no significant differences across groups were found for alcohol use problems. Protestants reported significantly higher levels of perceived drinking control than Catholics. Intrinsic religiosity, reflecting one's ego involvement with the tenets of one's religion, appeared to play a more important positive role over drinking behavior for Protestants than for Catholics.

Religiosity and attitudes towards drug use among 13-15 year olds in England

A sample of 4753 13-15 year olds attending the third and fourth year classes of 29 secondary schools completed a questionnaire concerned with attitudes towards the use of alcohol, butane gas, glue, heroin, marijuana and tobacco, together with indices of religious affiliation, belief and practice. The data demonstrated that young adolescents' attitudes towards drug use varies considerably from one substance to another and that religiosity is a significant predictor of attitudes towards the use of each of the substances included in the survey.

Attitude towards alcohol, church attendance and denominational identity

This paper describes the development of a 16-item Likert scale of attitude towards alcohol. Data derived from 315 individuals, concerned with various forms of youth work in England, demonstrate that both denominational affiliation and frequency of church attendance are significant determinants of attitudes towards alcohol. Membership of the Free Churches and frequent church attendance are associated with less liberal attitudes. These conclusions are discussed against the background of previous discrepant findings relating religiosity with alcohol use and abuse and contemporary sociological theories regarding the compartmentalisation of religious beliefs.

Substance misuse and the physical environment: the early action on a newly completed field

Transactions between individuals and their physical settings involving consciousness-altering drugs are examined. Research has gradually expanded outward from the individual and the drug to include the social and, finally, the physical context of drug use and misuse. Similarly, theory has evolved from simple unidirectional causal tenets to complex multidirectional contextual tenets. Research to date is sparse and does not live up to the ambitious vision of current theoretical views, but some results are striking and provocative. The review is framed in terms of physical scale (macro-, meso-, and microenvironments) and specificity (from molecular features of a setting to molar environmental characteristics such as stimulation level). Three temporal phases are considered: the development, maintenance, and cessation of substance misuse. The paucity of empirical research combined with the potential importance of environmental factors means that many challenging questions remain for a new generation of researchers.