Drugs and Alcohol 0 Elsevier Sequoia
ALCOHOL
GERALD Center
USE AMONG
GLOBETTI,
for Alcohol
(Received
February
255
Dependence, 2 (1977) 255 - 260 S.A., Lausanne -Printed in the Netherlands
BLACK
MAJEED
YOUTH
ALSIKAFI
and Drug Education,
IN A RURAL
and RICHARD
University
COMMUNITY
J. MORSE
of Alabama,
Alabama
35486
(U.S.A.)
15, 1977)
Summary
The results of this study lead to the conclusion that the circumstances which surround the act of youth drinking in the black population of an abstinence setting are somewhat different from those recorded elsewhere. Although fewer students drink, the drinking styles reveal several dimensions frequently associated with alcohol abuse. As a rule, users do not have parental permission to drink and for the most part they identify with churches that condemn alcohol on moral grounds. Because many of the youth procure their beverages from illegal sources or in an illegal way, they tend to drink in a surreptitious manner in a setting absent of restraint. Consequently, a significant number of youths were drinking without normal propriety and were exhibiting several social complications as a result. This suggests that less drinking can be expected in abstinence settings but, among those young people who drink, problems may be more frequent. This is logical since the user is at variance with the normative prescriptions of the community, church and home. Obviously, drinking under these conditions may actually be an expression of a general test of the limits of the adult world or a symbol of rejection of adult standards. Subsequently, the abuse of alcohol may decrease with maturity. Regardless of their meaning, however, the findings do point to a need for education about alcohol at the school level.
Introduction
Currently some fairly safe sociological generalizations can be made about the drinking habits of American youth. Yet, one neglected area is the study of alcohol use among black youth in this country, particularly young people who reside in rural and abstinence communities. In fact, a literature search going back to 1963 revealed only one article out of fortyfive listed in the Education Index discussing alcohol related to black youth [ 11. Accordingly, this paper involves a sociological analysis of the drinking habits of a sample of black youth in a small rural community located in
256
TABLE
1
Classification
of students
by situational
factors N
%
163 77 118
45.5 21.5 33.0
66
35.0
67
34.0
56
31.0
85 94 2
47.0 52.0 1.0
60 72 27 35
31 .o 37.0 14.0 18.0
116 43 10 17 21 23
50.0 19.0 04.0 07.0 09.0 10.0
32 157 12
16 78 06
Drinking experience Been “high” Been drunk Passed out Been ill No response
114 30 4 14 29
60 16 2 7 15
Experiencing complications Yes No No response
14 177 6
7 90 3
Situational
factors _
Drinking patterns Drinkers Non-drinkers Only tasted it once Frequency of alcohol use Frequently (once a week to several times a week) Occasionally (once to three times a month) Seldom (once or twice a year to once every month) Type of alcoholic Beer Wine Distilled spirits
beverage
Source of supply Parents and relatives Friends Merchants Bootleggers Place of first drink Home With friends Restaurant or bar Automobile School activity Other Help sought to control Yes No Don’t know
drinking
Alabama and characterized by an abstinence tradition. Two forms of data are examined. The first is an analysis of the events and circumstances which surround the act of drinking within an abstinence milieu. The second is an examination of several social factors in order to determine if the same influences on youth drinking are operating in the present locale of study. The sample comprised 364 students who were chosen randomly from a universe of seventh through twelfth grade students enrolled in the schools of the community studied. The respondents were interviewed in a classroom setting in groups of 25 to 30. The students were not permitted to discuss the questions among themselves and complete anonymity was assured. No school officials participated in any of the phases of data collection.
Analysis The students’ drinking behavior was operationalized by the questionnaire item “Did you have the occasion to drink any of the following types of alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, or distilled spirits) during the year immediately preceding the survey? “. Students who gave an affirmative reply were asked to respond to additional questions (Table 1) with respect to their first experience with alcohol, the current frequency of their alcohol intake, the type of beverage consumed, and where and with whom drinking occurred. The data revealed that the Alabama youths departed from previously reported findings on several factors associated with drinking styles and the drinking situation. For example, less than one-half (45.5% of the respondents were classified as users, a percentage explained in part by the rural character of the community studied. In comparison, national statistics have shown that from 71 to 92% of high school students indicate that they drink [2]. The kind of exposure to alcohol experienced most often by the students involved a relatively infrequent use of low content beverages. Thirty-five per cent used alcohol weekly or more often, while a similar proportion drank from once to three times monthly, and the remainder once every two to three months or once or twice a year. Beer was preferred by almost half of those who drank. However, wine was also highly favored in that 42% said they usually consumed alcohol in this form. This finding reflects both the larger black subculture in which wines have always been a favorite, as well as a trend among youth in general to prefer wine. It was found that friends were the source of supply for almost 40% of the students who used alcohol, while another third patronized bootleggers or legitimate merchants. Very few drank with parents; most did so with age peers without parental approval and in sub-rosa situations. This pattern is somewhat in contrast with that found elsewhere. In general, young people are usually introduced to alcohol in the home and under parental supervision somewhere around the age of thirteen or fourteen, although some drinking may occur earlier [3 - 51. However, many of the youth of this
258
study revealed an initial experience with alcohol outside the home (50%), in the absence of parental supervision and at ages between twelve and fourteen. Only 19% of the users replied that they were in the presence of their parents when they had their first drink. In contrast, 39% were with their friends. Furthermore, three in five said their parents did not know about that first drink. Evidence gathered by others suggests that drinking under these conditions insulates the behavior from social controls and therefore may engender a more abusive use of alcohol [ 6, 71. The data of this research appear to give some support to this statement. For example, 48% of the users mentioned that they used alcohol in parked cars or in other unsupervised settings. Six in ten had been “high” before, while nearly one in five had experienced drunkenness, one in ten within the last month. Nearly one-fourth of the drinkers replied that they drank whenever they got a chance and 15% had already sought some help concerning their drinking. A significant number of the students were experiencing several of the other signs normally associated with problem drinking or alcohol abuse. For example, about onetenth of the students who drank were experiencing complications as a result - such as getting involved in fights, destroying property, experiencing blackouts, damaging friendships. The limited research done in the area of problem use during adolescence shows the incidence of this type of drinking to be somewhere between 5 and 10% [ 3, 41. However, caution must be employed in statements to the effect that alcohol use in an abstinent setting precipitates a higher incidence of problem drinking, since the various studies do not report measures of teenage drinking styles in a manner that allows for specific comparisons. Operationally, problem drinking has encompassed behaviors which range from frequent intoxication to personal and social complications. Consequently, the only point that can be made with some degree of certainty about this study is that the youth who drink usually do so under surreptitious conditions, without observing normal propriety. This type of drinking situation seems to result in some degree of alcohol abuse. Despite differences in drinking styles, however, it was found that the same social and personal factors which influence drinking among the young in other areas were also operating among the rural black youth of this study (Table 2). For example, a higher percentage of males than females were categorized as users - 58.4% and 34.6%, respectively. The incidence of drinking increased with approaching adult age, from 21.4% at twelve years of age to almost 60% of the students at seventeen or over. Socioeconomic status, as measured by father’s occupation and education, failed to differentiate between drinkers and nondrinkers, a finding similar to that obtained elsewhere [ 81. Students who placed more emphasis on organized religion were less likely to use alcohol. Over three in five of those who went to church once a month or less were users, while only 15% were non-users. Corresponding to other studies, the data showed both parents and peers to be salient influences on youth drinking. In other words, students who drank
259
TABLE
2
Classification
Drinking
of students
patterns
by selected
sociodemographic
variables
Variables Sex Female
Male N Drinkers Non-Drinkers Only tasted it
97 26 43
%
N%
%
58.4 15.7 25.9
66 51 74
34.6 26.7 38.7
x2 = 20.57
d.f. = 2
p < 0.001
12
13 - 14
15 - 16
N 5 7 5
Drinkers Non-Drinkers Only tasted it
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
21.4 57.2 21.4
19 28 32
24.1 35.4 40.5
71 25 51
48.3 17.0 34.7
70 13 35
59.3 11.0 29.7
d.f. = 6
Church
per month
attendance
None
Drinkers Non-Drinkers Only tasted it
16 6 3
l-2
Friends’
5 or over
3-4
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
64.0 24.0 12.0
57 22 42
47.1 18.2 34.7
62 27 47
45.6 19.9 34.6
25 19 23
37.3 28.4 34.3
x2 = 8.84
p < 0.18
d.f. = 6 drinking
Drinkers
Drinkers Non-Drinkers Only tasted it
p < 0.001
x2 = 57.22
N
17 and over
patterns Non-drinkers
No knowledge
N
%
N
%
N
%
124 23 39
76.5 12.4 21.0
18 10 25
34.0 18.9 47.2
20 44 51
17.4 38.3 44.3
x2 = 77.84
d.f. = 4
p < 0.001
260
were more likely than non-drinkers to have parents and friends who also drank. The major theoretical question is to ferret out which of these two groups provides the major source of reinforcement for and definitions favorable to drinking in an abstinence setting. Logically it can be assumed that peer influence predominates in this instance. A future study will control for parental drinking so as to determine how users from homes where parents drink differ from those in which parents abstain.
References F. D. Harper, Alcohol and Blacks: State of the Periodical Literature, 1974, unpublished. Copies can be obtained from the National Council on Alcoholism, 733 Third Avenue, New York, New York 10017. M. Keller (ed.), Alcohol and Health, U.S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington, DC., 1974, pp. 8 - 12. R. L. Akers, Deviant Behavior, Wadsworth Publ. Co., Belmont, California, 1973, pp. 118 - 120. R. L. Akers, Teenage Drinking: A Survey of Action Programs, Northwestern Mutual Insurance Company, Seattle. B. Stacey and J. Davies, Drinking behavior in childhood and adolescence, J. Ale. Drug Education, 17 (1972) 4 - 5. C. N. Alexander, Alcohol and adolescent rebellion, Social forces, 45 (4) (June) (1967) 542 - 550. D. Cahalan and I. Cisin, American drinking practices, Quart. J. Studies Ale., 29 (1968) 130 - 151. G. L. Maddox, Teenage drinking in the United States, in D. Pittman and C. R. Snyder (eds.), Society, Culture and Drinking Patterns, John Wiley, New York, 1962, p. 230.
ALCOHOL
GERALD Center
USE AMONG
GLOBETTI,
for Alcohol
(Received
February
255
Dependence, 2 (1977) 255 - 260 S.A., Lausanne -Printed in the Netherlands
BLACK
MAJEED
YOUTH
ALSIKAFI
and Drug Education,
IN A RURAL
and RICHARD
University
COMMUNITY
J. MORSE
of Alabama,
Alabama
35486
(U.S.A.)
15, 1977)
Summary
The results of this study lead to the conclusion that the circumstances which surround the act of youth drinking in the black population of an abstinence setting are somewhat different from those recorded elsewhere. Although fewer students drink, the drinking styles reveal several dimensions frequently associated with alcohol abuse. As a rule, users do not have parental permission to drink and for the most part they identify with churches that condemn alcohol on moral grounds. Because many of the youth procure their beverages from illegal sources or in an illegal way, they tend to drink in a surreptitious manner in a setting absent of restraint. Consequently, a significant number of youths were drinking without normal propriety and were exhibiting several social complications as a result. This suggests that less drinking can be expected in abstinence settings but, among those young people who drink, problems may be more frequent. This is logical since the user is at variance with the normative prescriptions of the community, church and home. Obviously, drinking under these conditions may actually be an expression of a general test of the limits of the adult world or a symbol of rejection of adult standards. Subsequently, the abuse of alcohol may decrease with maturity. Regardless of their meaning, however, the findings do point to a need for education about alcohol at the school level.
Introduction
Currently some fairly safe sociological generalizations can be made about the drinking habits of American youth. Yet, one neglected area is the study of alcohol use among black youth in this country, particularly young people who reside in rural and abstinence communities. In fact, a literature search going back to 1963 revealed only one article out of fortyfive listed in the Education Index discussing alcohol related to black youth [ 11. Accordingly, this paper involves a sociological analysis of the drinking habits of a sample of black youth in a small rural community located in
256
TABLE
1
Classification
of students
by situational
factors N
%
163 77 118
45.5 21.5 33.0
66
35.0
67
34.0
56
31.0
85 94 2
47.0 52.0 1.0
60 72 27 35
31 .o 37.0 14.0 18.0
116 43 10 17 21 23
50.0 19.0 04.0 07.0 09.0 10.0
32 157 12
16 78 06
Drinking experience Been “high” Been drunk Passed out Been ill No response
114 30 4 14 29
60 16 2 7 15
Experiencing complications Yes No No response
14 177 6
7 90 3
Situational
factors _
Drinking patterns Drinkers Non-drinkers Only tasted it once Frequency of alcohol use Frequently (once a week to several times a week) Occasionally (once to three times a month) Seldom (once or twice a year to once every month) Type of alcoholic Beer Wine Distilled spirits
beverage
Source of supply Parents and relatives Friends Merchants Bootleggers Place of first drink Home With friends Restaurant or bar Automobile School activity Other Help sought to control Yes No Don’t know
drinking
Alabama and characterized by an abstinence tradition. Two forms of data are examined. The first is an analysis of the events and circumstances which surround the act of drinking within an abstinence milieu. The second is an examination of several social factors in order to determine if the same influences on youth drinking are operating in the present locale of study. The sample comprised 364 students who were chosen randomly from a universe of seventh through twelfth grade students enrolled in the schools of the community studied. The respondents were interviewed in a classroom setting in groups of 25 to 30. The students were not permitted to discuss the questions among themselves and complete anonymity was assured. No school officials participated in any of the phases of data collection.
Analysis The students’ drinking behavior was operationalized by the questionnaire item “Did you have the occasion to drink any of the following types of alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, or distilled spirits) during the year immediately preceding the survey? “. Students who gave an affirmative reply were asked to respond to additional questions (Table 1) with respect to their first experience with alcohol, the current frequency of their alcohol intake, the type of beverage consumed, and where and with whom drinking occurred. The data revealed that the Alabama youths departed from previously reported findings on several factors associated with drinking styles and the drinking situation. For example, less than one-half (45.5% of the respondents were classified as users, a percentage explained in part by the rural character of the community studied. In comparison, national statistics have shown that from 71 to 92% of high school students indicate that they drink [2]. The kind of exposure to alcohol experienced most often by the students involved a relatively infrequent use of low content beverages. Thirty-five per cent used alcohol weekly or more often, while a similar proportion drank from once to three times monthly, and the remainder once every two to three months or once or twice a year. Beer was preferred by almost half of those who drank. However, wine was also highly favored in that 42% said they usually consumed alcohol in this form. This finding reflects both the larger black subculture in which wines have always been a favorite, as well as a trend among youth in general to prefer wine. It was found that friends were the source of supply for almost 40% of the students who used alcohol, while another third patronized bootleggers or legitimate merchants. Very few drank with parents; most did so with age peers without parental approval and in sub-rosa situations. This pattern is somewhat in contrast with that found elsewhere. In general, young people are usually introduced to alcohol in the home and under parental supervision somewhere around the age of thirteen or fourteen, although some drinking may occur earlier [3 - 51. However, many of the youth of this
258
study revealed an initial experience with alcohol outside the home (50%), in the absence of parental supervision and at ages between twelve and fourteen. Only 19% of the users replied that they were in the presence of their parents when they had their first drink. In contrast, 39% were with their friends. Furthermore, three in five said their parents did not know about that first drink. Evidence gathered by others suggests that drinking under these conditions insulates the behavior from social controls and therefore may engender a more abusive use of alcohol [ 6, 71. The data of this research appear to give some support to this statement. For example, 48% of the users mentioned that they used alcohol in parked cars or in other unsupervised settings. Six in ten had been “high” before, while nearly one in five had experienced drunkenness, one in ten within the last month. Nearly one-fourth of the drinkers replied that they drank whenever they got a chance and 15% had already sought some help concerning their drinking. A significant number of the students were experiencing several of the other signs normally associated with problem drinking or alcohol abuse. For example, about onetenth of the students who drank were experiencing complications as a result - such as getting involved in fights, destroying property, experiencing blackouts, damaging friendships. The limited research done in the area of problem use during adolescence shows the incidence of this type of drinking to be somewhere between 5 and 10% [ 3, 41. However, caution must be employed in statements to the effect that alcohol use in an abstinent setting precipitates a higher incidence of problem drinking, since the various studies do not report measures of teenage drinking styles in a manner that allows for specific comparisons. Operationally, problem drinking has encompassed behaviors which range from frequent intoxication to personal and social complications. Consequently, the only point that can be made with some degree of certainty about this study is that the youth who drink usually do so under surreptitious conditions, without observing normal propriety. This type of drinking situation seems to result in some degree of alcohol abuse. Despite differences in drinking styles, however, it was found that the same social and personal factors which influence drinking among the young in other areas were also operating among the rural black youth of this study (Table 2). For example, a higher percentage of males than females were categorized as users - 58.4% and 34.6%, respectively. The incidence of drinking increased with approaching adult age, from 21.4% at twelve years of age to almost 60% of the students at seventeen or over. Socioeconomic status, as measured by father’s occupation and education, failed to differentiate between drinkers and nondrinkers, a finding similar to that obtained elsewhere [ 81. Students who placed more emphasis on organized religion were less likely to use alcohol. Over three in five of those who went to church once a month or less were users, while only 15% were non-users. Corresponding to other studies, the data showed both parents and peers to be salient influences on youth drinking. In other words, students who drank
259
TABLE
2
Classification
Drinking
of students
patterns
by selected
sociodemographic
variables
Variables Sex Female
Male N Drinkers Non-Drinkers Only tasted it
97 26 43
%
N%
%
58.4 15.7 25.9
66 51 74
34.6 26.7 38.7
x2 = 20.57
d.f. = 2
p < 0.001
12
13 - 14
15 - 16
N 5 7 5
Drinkers Non-Drinkers Only tasted it
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
21.4 57.2 21.4
19 28 32
24.1 35.4 40.5
71 25 51
48.3 17.0 34.7
70 13 35
59.3 11.0 29.7
d.f. = 6
Church
per month
attendance
None
Drinkers Non-Drinkers Only tasted it
16 6 3
l-2
Friends’
5 or over
3-4
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
64.0 24.0 12.0
57 22 42
47.1 18.2 34.7
62 27 47
45.6 19.9 34.6
25 19 23
37.3 28.4 34.3
x2 = 8.84
p < 0.18
d.f. = 6 drinking
Drinkers
Drinkers Non-Drinkers Only tasted it
p < 0.001
x2 = 57.22
N
17 and over
patterns Non-drinkers
No knowledge
N
%
N
%
N
%
124 23 39
76.5 12.4 21.0
18 10 25
34.0 18.9 47.2
20 44 51
17.4 38.3 44.3
x2 = 77.84
d.f. = 4
p < 0.001
260
were more likely than non-drinkers to have parents and friends who also drank. The major theoretical question is to ferret out which of these two groups provides the major source of reinforcement for and definitions favorable to drinking in an abstinence setting. Logically it can be assumed that peer influence predominates in this instance. A future study will control for parental drinking so as to determine how users from homes where parents drink differ from those in which parents abstain.
References F. D. Harper, Alcohol and Blacks: State of the Periodical Literature, 1974, unpublished. Copies can be obtained from the National Council on Alcoholism, 733 Third Avenue, New York, New York 10017. M. Keller (ed.), Alcohol and Health, U.S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington, DC., 1974, pp. 8 - 12. R. L. Akers, Deviant Behavior, Wadsworth Publ. Co., Belmont, California, 1973, pp. 118 - 120. R. L. Akers, Teenage Drinking: A Survey of Action Programs, Northwestern Mutual Insurance Company, Seattle. B. Stacey and J. Davies, Drinking behavior in childhood and adolescence, J. Ale. Drug Education, 17 (1972) 4 - 5. C. N. Alexander, Alcohol and adolescent rebellion, Social forces, 45 (4) (June) (1967) 542 - 550. D. Cahalan and I. Cisin, American drinking practices, Quart. J. Studies Ale., 29 (1968) 130 - 151. G. L. Maddox, Teenage drinking in the United States, in D. Pittman and C. R. Snyder (eds.), Society, Culture and Drinking Patterns, John Wiley, New York, 1962, p. 230.
