Everybody Drinks
Everybody drinks – time and again, you hear students and adults say something like, “It’s normal. All kids drink.” And, often, researchers (myself included) focus on how many young people are drinking. The 2002 to 2006 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health, for example, found that in 2006 almost one in five people aged 12 – 20 engaged in binge drinking (consuming five or more drinks on at least one occasion) in the past month and almost half had used alcohol in the past year. [Source: http://oas.samhsa.gov/underage2k8/Ch2.htm#2.1]
Similarly, most adults and students believe that all adults drink alcohol.
Often it is these perceptions that leave adults and young people believing they should drink or be able to control their drinking in order to successfully drink because everybody drinks. But, the perceptions and the realities do not line up.
NIAAA reports on its “Rethinking Drinking” website (after you answer the first couple of Qs) that 35% of American adults do not drink any alcohol and 37% always stay within low-risk limits. [Source: http://rethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov/IsYourDrinkingPatternRisky/WhatsYourPattern.asp] Likewise, if you look again at the statistics of young people’s drinking patterns as noted above, 80% did not binge drink and a little over half did not consume any alcohol in 2006.
So, where am I going with this?
While it is critical that we change, and in some cases simply start, the conversations about all things alcohol abuse related because…
- more than half of all American adults have a loved one with a drinking problem [Source: NIAAA]
- someone dies in an alcohol-related motor vehicle crash in America every 31 minutes [Source: NHTSA/2004]
- half of all alcoholics were addicted by age 21 and two-thirds were addicted by age 25 [Source: NIAAA] and
- the cost to society (in terms of health/crime-related costs and loss in productivity) of alcohol-related problems is $185 billion/year [Source: NIAAA 2001]
… it is also critical to remember and talk about the facts that…
- 35% of American adults do not drink any alcohol and 37% always stay within risk-free limits and
- a little over half of all young people ages 12-20 do not drink and almost 80% do not binge drink.
Thus, our conversations must also focus on these statistics so that we can change the perceptions and bring them in line with the realities.
Not everybody drinks.
Lisa Frederiksen
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Lisa,
I think there’s power in the ability to change the statistics we report. I wonder what difference it would make, in terms of adolescent drinking, to somply report that 80% don’t drink, rather that 1 in 5 (or 20%) do. There’s no question in my mind that the two would produce different behaviors.
Sounds like a study waiting to happen…
Thanks for the comment, Adi. There is a group in my area who are doing just what you suggest. They go by the acronym PADACC (Palo Alto Drug and Alcohol Community Collaborative), http://www.padacc.org, and are using the social norms theory in surveys to help with underage drinking issues. Quoting from their website:
“Reality vs. Perception
“Social norms theory assumes that much of our behavior is influenced by how other members of our social groups behave. Our beliefs about what others do often is incorrect. Social norms theory predicts that individuals overestimate the degree to which peers have permissive attitudes or behavior with respect to alcohol and other drugs or other health problems and underestimate the extent to which peers engage in healthy, health-promoting behavior and risk-reducing behavior.
“Misperception is where risky behaviors can start. If a person believes the misperception that “everyone is doing itâ€, their chances of joining that perceived as the normal group is far greater.
“Trying to fit in and be normal is a very natural part of wanting to belong. Fortunately, the norm in Palo Alto is that most teens are not engaging in substance use or abuse. Using substances is a risk they don’t have to take to fit in. Now we need to let them know!”