Substance Abuse
Do cultural attitudes towards alcohol inverseluy affect the rates of alcoholism?
Hi Chase, This is an update from the AskNSDL staff regarding your question, "Do cultural attitudes toward alcohol inversely affect the rates of alcoholism?" The American Medical Association recognizes alcoholism as a disease and you may wish to consider this factor in researching your question. Here are some sites to visit for more information on this topic. 1. The American Medical Association: Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse. Several articles are linked from this page that discuss initiatives to reduce problem drinking. They may provide background material on cultural attitudes toward drinking. (You will need Adobe Acrobate Reader to view the PDF files. You can download it for free athttp://www.adobe.com) http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/3337.html 2. Alcohol: Problems & Solutions. Prof. David J. Hanson, Ph.D. maintains this web site that offers facts and some interesting ideas on alcohol and its use. http://www2.potsdam.edu/SOC/hansondj/index.html The following article presents one view on the effect of cultural attitudes toward alcohol. "Abstinence and Alcohol Abuse" by David J. Hanson, Ph.D. Prof. Hanson's overview of this piece states: "Individuals raised in abstinence environments who choose to drink tend to experience more drinking problems than those raised in non-abstinence environments. A major implication of this fact is that raising young people in an abstinence environment increases the chances that they will experience drinking problems when they do drink, even if only in small quantities." http://www2.potsdam.edu/SOC/hansondj/InMyOpinion/AbstinenceAndAbuse.html 3. The National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health produce Medline Plus, a wonderful resource of health information: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/healthtopics_a.html When you click on "Health Topics" and select the letter "A," you'll find that there are 4 index pages that are related to Alcoholism. For the list of "Health Topics beginning with the letter "A," go to: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/healthtopics_a.html On the "Alcohol and Youth" page, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/alcoholandyouth.html) I saw this web site: "Students Examining the Culture of College Drinking." http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/students/anatomy/body_nonflash.aspx This article from that web site addresses your topic: "High-Risk Drinking in College: What We Know and What We Need To Learn, Final Report of the Panel on Contexts and Consequences." Task Force of the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, April 2002. Be sure to look at the section on "Multiple Influences." http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/Reports/Panel01/Panel01_TOC.aspx 4. You may also wish to visit the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. There is a lot of material available here. http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/ I typed the phrase "cultural attitudes" in the NIAAA search box (top left of the page) and retrieved 4 results that look useful. I've cited one of them. Try replicating this search and look at the other articles as well. "Drinking Patterns and Drinking Problems Among Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders" by Kiyoko Makimoto, Ph.D. http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh22-4/270.pdf Thanks for sending your question to AskNSDL. Be sure to check with the librarians at your school and/or public library for other resources. They may be able to help you find more information if you're interested in research on international cultures. The AskNSDL staff Original answer from AskNSDL expert Stefany Jacesko: It depends on which cultural attitudes you're talking about. Sure, it is socially unacceptable to be an alchoholic--not to mention the health risks and legal issues. On the other hand, look at the beer and liquor ads and commercials that glorify drinking and try to make it "cool". That would be a good debate to have, but I'm pretty sure that our culture in America has a direct affect on the raising the rate. You're not going to be able to find a trustworthy absolute answer on that one, but that is my opinion.