Adolescent and Young Adult Drinking

by National Institute of Health

Alcohol consumption by adolescents and young adults varies greatly in different countries and cultures, in different population groups within a country, and over time. Analyses of per capita consumption in different countries provide some information on drinking patterns of young people in various countries. School-based surveys conducted in a variety of European countries and in the United States offer more specific insight into the drinking behavior of this age group. Such surveys have analyzed variables such as age of onset of drinking; lifetime frequency of drinking; drinking to intoxication; frequency, amount, and timing of current drinking; and drinking consequences. These studies have demonstrated that drinking patterns of young people in, for example, Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon, and Mediterranean countries vary greatly. Further analyses have explored the influence of social norms and related factors as well as alcohol availability and pricing on alcohol consumption among adolescents and young adults. The generalizability of the findings is limited, however, by the fact that most studies have been conducted in the United States and Europe.

Studies conducted in various countries have demonstrated that both the frequency of drinking alcoholic beverages and the amount of alcohol consumed per person or per occasion vary greatly among different countries and cultures, among different population groups within a given country, and for each population over time. Similarly, the rates of alcohol-related problems vary greatly among different countries and among different population groups. These differences are found not only for adult drinkers but also for adolescents and young adults.

One useful measure that can easily be determined in many countries is the total alcohol consumption of the population, which can be converted to average per capita consumption. This variable is related to the prevalence of heavy alcohol use and also is an important indicator of the prevalence of alcohol-related problems. The relationship between average per capita consumption and the level of alcohol-related problems in a population is influenced by the following factors:

The number of drinkers in the population and their drinking habits. For example, if total alcohol consumption can be attributed to only 20 percent of the population, who mostly drink on the weekends (and the remaining population does not drink), the prevalence of heavy drinking and of alcohol-related problems will be different than if alcohol consumption can be attributed to 90 percent of the population who generally have only one drink per day.

The drinking culture and attitudes toward drinking and alcohol-related problems. "Harmful" drinking and alcohol-related problems are in part culturally defined - that is, a behavior considered problematic in one culture may not be thought of as problematic in another culture.

Overall historical, cultural, economic, and social circumstances that affect many areas related to alcohol consumption. For instance, if drinking habits are similar in two countries but people in one of those countries are significantly less likely to own a car, then the frequency of drunk driving and the proportion of alcohol-related deaths among all traffic fatalities will differ greatly between the two countries.

Alcohol control measures and their enforcement. For instance, increases in the legal drinking age and effective enforcement of the new age limit will lead to lower alcohol consumption levels and fewer alcohol-related problems among young adults and adolescents.

The relationships between alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems, as well as the factors that influence these relationships, apply to both adult and adolescent drinking. When trying to compare adolescent or young adult alcohol consumption across countries or cultures, however, researchers must keep in mind that the definitions of these two developmental stages can vary according to the cultural and historical background of the society under investigation. Broadly defined, adolescence and young adulthood include the period of transition from childhood to adulthood. It is the time when a person acquires the skills needed to cope with the emotional, physical, social, and economic separation from parents. Ideally, it also is the time when a person paves the way for establishing his or her own family, raising children, and participating in social and work life as well as leisure time activities as an independent individual. Because these developments may occur at different ages in different cultures, it is difficult to define adolescence and young adulthood in terms of exact ages. For practical purposes, in most Western industrialized societies, adolescence is defined as ages 14 through 18 and young adulthood as ages 19 through 25. In some studies, even 29-year-olds have been considered young adults.

After a brief review of alcohol consumption patterns in the entire population (which to a certain extent also reflect consumption patterns by younger people), this article provides an international perspective on alcohol consumption among adolescents and young adults and examines gender differences, abstinence rates, the amount and frequency of drinking, as well as drinking to intoxication. This discussion considers not only the actual drinking patterns but also the drinking contexts (i.e., the time and place of drinking and the nature of the drinking occasion). It is important to keep in mind, however, that the information on drinking patterns usually comes from survey studies, which can differ greatly in how different aspects of drinking patterns are defined and measured. Furthermore, most of the available research data were obtained in the developed countries, which may limit the generalizability of these research findings to adolescent and young adult drinking in other areas of the world.

About the Author

NIH is the nation's medical research agency - making important medical discoveries that improve health and save lives. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research.