Leisure time, Peers and their influence on alcohol and drug
consumption amongst the youth
Majone Steketee, Claire Aussems, Jessica van den Toorn, Harrie Jonkman
1
Introduction
The majority of young people start to consume alcohol or smoke cannabis between the ages
of 12 and 16. This is the age at which young people often go out for the first time, and when
the influence of parents decreases while that of friends increases. When creating a personal
social life it seems that experimenting with stimulants is a part of this phase. However, there
is a growing concern about the use of alcohol among young people. Several recent studies
show that students not only drink more, but also start drinking at a younger age (Hibell et al,
2004, 2007). In addition, there is a growing trend that young people drink more excessively.
In this report we examine how friends and the way people spend their leisure time have an
influence on substance use, especially heavy alcohol consumption.
2
Theory about alcohol and the influence of peers
Friends are important when it comes to alcohol and drug use among young people. The initial
exploration of illegal drugs usually takes place through friends or acquaintances, while
alcohol, a legal drug, is usually tasted for the first time with family.
Youngsters can be an important mainstay and protect and correct one another. However,
at the same time they challenge each other with various risk behaviors (Meeus et al, 1999).
Peer pressure and group norms may lie at the basis of problematic alcohol consumption. From
the desire of belonging to a group or being seen as ‘cool’, it is difficult to withstand drinking
within a group context. This is especially characteristic of boys in large groups, and they will
sometimes compete with each other to see who can endure the most alcohol. Drinking or
‘handeling’ excessive amounts of alcohol, has become synonymous to being “strong”.
Andrews et al (2011) also showed that drinking behavior is a social reaction rather than
an intentional action. They found evidence for Gibbons and Gerrard’s theory (1997), which
stipulates that adolescents have social images, shaped as prototypes, about their peers who
engage in risky behaviors. They believe that engaging in the same behavior will compel their
peers to believe that they (also) posses attributes of the prototype. As a result, more
favorable social images leads to more willingness to engage in the behavior. The authors
acknowledge the correlation between willingness and intentions but found that they have
independent effects as well. ‘Young people may not intend to try alcohol but, under riskconducive circumstances, they may be willing to try.’ (p.449) In contrast to Meeuw et al
(1999), Andrew et al, found that girls are more easily influenced by their peers than boys, in
terms of social images. They explain that girls may be more aware of their social surroundings
and have a greater ability to empathize with others, in comparison to boys (Zahn-Waxler,
Race, & Duggal, 2005).
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In their study, Danielsson et al (2010) emphasize that the development of alcohol use
differs for different groups of individuals. Using Windle, Mun, & Windle’s (2004) typology, we
can make a distinction between abstainers, experimenters, early high and stable consumers
and sudden increasers. Longitudinal data from students in Sweden showed that having friends
who drink predicts membership of the gradual increase/high consumer/sudden increase
trajectories. These results also indicate that truancy and bullying are related to higher
alcohol consumption.
Some studies indicate that the extent to which a youngsters conduct is influenced by the
problematic behavior of their friends is great, as they often mirror those behaviors, by
committing similar offenses, using the same substances, or even imitating suicidal behaviors
(Steketee, 2011, Prinstein e.a., 2000). Sieving et al. 2000, found that similarities in drinking
behavior among adolescent friends may be more related to processes of peer influence than
those of peer selection. Findings support the utility of alcohol use prevention programs that
equip younger teens with skills to resist peer influences to use alcohol. Briere et al (2011)
investigated the simultaneous use of alcohol and cannabis among adolescents. With selfreported data from students in Quebec, they found that adolescents were more likely to use
both drugs if they had drug-using friends in the first years of high school.
In their study, Ennett and colleagues (2008) highlight that adolescent alcohol abuse can
only be explained by taking into account multiple social contexts and the relations between
them. Through a social network analysis of longitudinal data of almost 7.000 adolescents,
they found that the influence of peers on alcohol use is always moderated by the nature of
the social bond. High levels of peer alcohol consumption only increased the risk of alcohol use
when higher social regulation was experienced as well. In addition, the authors also
concluded that the family environment influences the effect of peers on alcohol use. A
positive family environment acts as a protection mechanism against negative peer influences,
while family conflict and family alcohol use amplify the negative peer effects.
Capaldi et al (2009) argue that while parents are most influential during childhood, peers
have the strongest influence on problem behaviors during adolescence. However, according to
the authors, parental monitoring at this age and their efforts at reducing the opportunities
for their child to engage in drinking with their peers, is still one of the most important
prevention strategies. Van der Vorst et al (2010) addressed this question of whether parental
supervision of adolescent alcohol use actually lowers their intake. By using a dataset of 885
Dutch families they concluded that ‘if adolescents start to drink, no matter in what setting,
with whom they drink, or how old they are, adolescents will drink more alcohol over time and
(consequently) are at risk of problem drinking’ (p.8).
Chuang et al (2009) investigated the influence of the neighborhood context on the effect
of peers on adolescent behavior. According to their analyses of adolescents in six different
neighborhood types, peer smoking was associated with the smoking behavior of adolescents in
rural neighborhoods, while peer drinking was associated with adolescent drinking in urban
neighborhoods. One of the explanations given in this study is the higher prevalence of adult
alcohol use in urban areas which intensifies the influence of peer alcohol use, both through
modeling and greater access to substances. Nevertheless, in all neighborhood contexts peer
behaviors were more influential than parental behaviors.
Even though most scholars focus on the negative effect of peers on alcohol use,
belonging to a particular group can act as protection mechanism as well. Buckley et al (2009)
explored the role of peers as a protective factor for reducing or limiting the engagement in
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risky behavior. For this study more than five hundred adolescents, with a mean age of 14,
were asked about their intention to intervene if their friend(s) were at risk of alcohol or drug
related harms. Examples of these harms are getting drunk, driving under the influence of
alcohol and getting into fights. More than half of the respondents indicated that they would
intervene, especially (83%) when a friend wanted to drink and drive. Predominantly female
adolescents who were more connected to their schools, and youngsters with less risk-taking
friends, were more likely to intervene. On the other hand, community adolescents with high
alcohol consumption rates were less likely to do so. This is most likely due to a greater
pressure to comply with group norms. The scholars also highlight that privacy may be an
important factor.
Not only are friends, but also different lifestyles strongly related to smoking, drinking and
using drugs (Karvonene.a. 2001). Conventional activities were not associated with a reduction
of drinking. However, involvement in sports/games consistently acts as independent
protective factors in both contexts. Both commercialized and peer-oriented lifestyles were
independently associated with higher levels of alcohol use. Four leisure dimensions were
studied by Piko & Vazsonyi (2004). These include, peer-oriented, commercial leisure (having a
chat with friends, parties, listening to music, looking around the shops, hanging around the
streets), aesthetic-sophisticated leisure (movie, theater, pop concert and reading),
conventional type of leisure (reading, sports, hobbies, housework, religious events), and a
sensation/technical-oriented leisure (computer/internet use, watching TV and/or video and
hobbies). “Similar to evidence from other national contexts, conventional activities or family
activities act as buffers against problem behaviours; on the other hand, peer-oriented
activities or commercial types of leisure place youth at greater risk for a wide variety of
problem behaviours.” (p.728). This effect is the same for both boys and girls.
The aim of this present study is to examine whether, in what manner and with whom
adolescents spend their leisure time with, has an influence on their alcohol and drug
consumption.
3
Characteristics of leisure time in European countries
The ISRD questionnaire consists of many questions concerning how students spend their
leisure time. The students were asked how much time they spent engaging in different
activities outside of school, on an average school day. We also found it interesting to find out
how juveniles spent their leisure time. The youngsters, on an average school day, spent most
of their free time hanging out with friends and watching television, or playing games and
chatting on the computer (see figure 1). Playing a music instrument and reading were not
popular activities, even magazines or comic books. The majority of the youngsters do their
homework, and only a small percentage (7,2%) said that they never do homework. Most of the
students spend half an hour up to two hours (83.1%) doing their homework.
There are differences between girls and boys as to how they spend their leisure time.
Boys
spend
much
more
time
on
sports
(
66%
versus
34%)
,while the girls spend much more time on their homework (66% versus 33%) and reading books
(70% versus 40%). There are not so many differences in regards to the other activities. There
are also no differences with respect to migrant background or grade.
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Figure 1 The percentage of hours spent on the different activities
When we look at the effect sizes of the logistic regression analyses of different alcohol use
indicators on youngster leisure time activities, we can observe that the more time a
youngster spends with their friends, the more likely they are to drink, and drink heavily (see
table 1). However, when students engage in more individual activities, such as homework,
reading books or magazines, it is more likely that they will not drink at all. There is no
significant relation between playing an instrument or practicing sports, and alcohol
consumption.
The results also convey that when we look at students who used marijuana or hard
drugs they were more likely to hang out with their friends more frequently and play a music
instrument. Furthermore, it is unlikely that they practiced sports, did homework or read
books.
Table 1 The standardized effect sizes of the activities on substance use. Logistic
regression corrected for grade, gender and migrant status
Last
Life
Binge
Hashish
Hashish
Hard
Abstine
nce
month
time
life
last
Drugs
alcohol
alcohol
time
month
last
month
Playing music instrument
Reading magazines/comics
Reading books
Doing homework
Practicing sports
Watch TV/ Play computer
Hang out with friends
1.05***
0.91***
0.81***
0.75***
1.01
1.11***
1.36***
1.01
0,95***
0,88***
0,82***
0.99
1.18***
1.33***
1,05**
0,90***
0,80***
0,67***
1,01
1,14***
1,64***
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1,10***
0,87***
0,82***
0,64***
0,90***
0,98
1,76***
1.13***
0,81***
0.77***
0,60***
0,87***
0,95***
1,81
1,23***
0,97
0,80*
0,49***
1.00
1.00
2,10***
0.99
1.06***
1.14***
1,22***
1,01
0,84***
0,74***
Hanging out with friends is clearly related to substance use and especially to problematic
drinking or the use of (soft or hard) drugs. We also investigated whether there were
differences between countries regarding the time young people spent hanging out with their
friends (see figure 2).
Figure 2 The amount of time students spent hanging out with friends %
In Belgium, most of the youngsters spent less than one hour hanging out with their friends
(44%), while in Germany, the majority of the students spent most of their leisure time
hanging out with friends (71%). Although there are large differences between the countries
regarding the time youngsters spent with their friends, hardly any differences can be
detected in relation to last month alcohol use (see figure 3). For almost all countries the odds
ratios of whether students drank alcohol at the last occasion was 1.5. In only Finland and
Iceland, the odds ratios were somewhat higher (2,13 and 2,24).
According to the literature, drinking alcohol is a part of a youngsters’ social life. Hanging out
and especially going out with friends provides them with the opportunity to drink alcohol.
That said, we asked the students: how many times a week do you usually go out at night, such
as going to a party or a disco, to somebody’s house or hang out on the street. The majority of
the youngsters go out (74,9%), and only a small group don’t go out at all. Most of the
juveniles who go out at night, only go out once or twice a week. However, almost a quarter
goes out more often than they stay at home (26,1%), and ten percent goes out on a daily basis
(9,4%). There is a small gender difference: more girls don’t go out at night at all (28% versus
24,1%) and more boys go out more than three times a week (37,3% versus 31,8%).
Furthermore, there is a tendency for more students in 7th grade to stay at home than the
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students in higher grades, which could be explained by the age differences between the
school grades. There are no large differences between native born and migrant juveniles.
Figure 3 Odds ratios for going out and last month alcohol use: logistic regression
controlled for gender, migrant status and grade
Having the opportunity to drink outside the house is indeed relevant, as there is a relationship
between going out frequently and drinking alcohol. Juveniles who go out more frequently are
more likely to drink alcohol. Those who go out once or twice a week are more likely to drink
than those who stay at home (odds ratio 2.51), and the likelihood is even higher if they go out
three times a week or more (odds ratio 4.29). Although going out at night has an influence on
last months drinking behaviour in every country, there are differences to be noted (see figure
3).
The relation is stronger in Sweden, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands and Switzerland, than
in Italy, Poland or France. It is remarkable that in the majority of Eastern European countries
such as Bosnia & Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Armenia or Russia, the relationship between
going out and drinking is weaker than in others, while the pattern of going out is not that
different. We may conclude that perhaps going out and drinking is more a Western and
Northern European phenomenon. An explanation for this difference could be that in countries
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such as Italy, France and Spain it is more common to drink at home with meals. Thus we
sought to find out with whom the youngsters have been drinking. Most of the youngsters drink
soft drinks with their peers (57%), and only a small proportion say that they have been
drinking alone (6%) and with their parents (24%). 13 percent of youngsters are reported to
have been drinking with other adults.
Table 2
Drinking alone
With parents
With adults
Friends
Logistic regression corrected for grade, gender and migrant status
Last
month
Alcohol
Odds
1.40***
1.26***
1.72***
3.08***
Binge
drinking
Odds
95%
interval
1.21
1.13
1.55
2.77
– 1.61
– 1.40
– 1.90
– 3.43
95%
interval
Being
drunk
Odds
95%
interval
0.90
0.45***
1.30***
3.29***
*** P<.000
When we look at the relationship between problematic alcohol consumption, such as binge
drinking or ever being drunk, we see that drinking within the family in the presence of the
parents acts a protective factor (odds 0.6 and 0.45), while drinking with friends results in the
highest rates for last month alcohol use (odds 3.08). We found the same pattern for ever
being drunk. Our study shows that problematic alcohol use of youngsters is not related to
drinking with parents. Those youngsters show a more moderate alcohol use pattern than
those who consumed alcohol with their peers, the last time they drank. There are large
differences in regards to whom they have been drinking with (see table 2).
4.
Friends and the use of alcohol and drugs
As mentioned earlier, during adolescence friends become very important. During the
transition to adulthood, the relationship with parents becomes more distanced and the
relationship with friends becomes more dominant (Thornberry, 2005). To determine whether
the students are more family-oriented or peer-oriented we asked them with whom they spend
most of their free time. There were four mutually exclusive answer categories: on their own,
with their family, with a few friends (less than four), or with a large group of friends (four or
more). Most of the students are peer-oriented (57%), and spend more time with a small group
of friends (34%) or with a larger group of friends (23%). Almost 9% of the students spent most
their free time on their own, and one third spent most of their free time with their family
(34%).
There are no differences between girls and boys, nor are there any differences as to
migration background. As expected, students in higher grades spend more time with their
friends and less with family.
If adolescents belong to a larger group of friends they are more likely to drink alcohol
and in a non-moderate way, while spending time with their family acts as a protective
mechanism against problematic drinking behaviour (see table 3). Due to the fact that
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spending more time with a large group of friends increases the likelihood of (excessive)
drinking, they are also more likely to develop problematic drinking patterns.
Table 3
Regression analysis of alcohol use last year and with whom they spent their time
with, corrected for grade, gender and migrant status
Time on my own
With my family
With 1-3 friends
With a large group
Alcohol
use last
month
Odds
0.94
0.56***
1.47***
2.31***
Binge
drinking
Odds
95%
interval
0.84
0.52
1.35
2.10
95%
interval
– 1.04
– 0.61
– 1.61
– 2.53
Being
drunk
Odds
95%
interval
0.92
0.44
1.30
3.33
Differences can also be noted between the countries. For example, in Anglo Saxon countries,
juveniles are more peer-centred and spend more time with their friends, while in the
Mediterranean countries, youngsters are more likely to spend their time with family. This is
consistent with the fact that students from those countries do not go out that often in the
evening.
Lifestyle
In the literature it is assumed that if juveniles spend more time with their friends they will be
more easily influenced to consume alcohol or drugs. This study also illustrates that there is a
significant correlation between ‘hanging out with friends’ and drinking behaviour. Thus we
created a scale for different lifestyles where we used those items that were more familyorientated rather than friend-oriented.
The results show that there are some elements of juvenile leisure time that are
related to substance use. These are, the frequency of going out at night, spending a lot of
time hanging out with friends, and spending a lot of time in public places with a group of
friends. On the basis of this conclusion, we developed the scale “lifestyles of the youth”. We
recoded these four variables as -1, 0 and +1. The final score varies between -4 to 4
(Cronbachs’ Alpha =0.60).
Scheme 1
Definition of lifestyle
Variables
Going out at night
Hanging out with
friends
Time spent with
-1
Never
Less than one hour
0
Once or twice
One to two hours
1
Three times or more
Three or more hours
Family
On my own/ with
small group of friends
The group of friends
spent a lot of time in
public places
No
With a large group of
friends
Yes
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Deviant group behavior
There is a question in the survey which asks what activities youngsters engage in when they
hang out with their friends, e.g. using substances with friends. Going to the disco or concerts
is a risk factor for using alcohol or drugs, while more delinquent behaviour, such as shoplifting
is more connected to (soft) drug use than alcohol (see table 4). Other deviant behaviors, such
as vandalism, or frightening other people just for fun, is only slightly related to substance
use. Two protective factors are practicing sports and playing in a band. Especially playing in a
band is somewhat surprising because we found that playing an instrument is related to soft
and hard drug use, while playing an instrument in a band is not related to substance use.
Table 4
Activities that adolescents engage in when they hang out with friends and
their relationship to substance use (odds)
Last
Life-
Binge
Hashish
lifetime
Hashish
Hard
last
Drugs
month
last
Abstinence
month
time
alcohol
alcohol
Go to disco or pop concerts
1.31***
1.50***
1,33***
1,34***
1.28***
1.37***
0.66***
Play in a band
0.96***
0.99
0.91***
0.96
0.95
0.96
1.00
Drink excessive alcohol or
2.80***
3.45***
2.54***
2.14***
2.12***
1.84***
0.27***
1.04
1.18***
1.10**
1.13***
1.10**
1.17
0.84***
Shoplifting just for fun
0,91***
0.89***
0.95
1.16***
1.16***
1.12
1.10***
Play sports
0.96
0.95**
0.99
0.85***
0.91
0.92
1.05**
Play computer games or
1.04
1.10***
1.00
0.88***
0.99
0.87
0.90***
1.15***
1.18***
1.05*
1.03
0.88**
1.21**
0.79***
month
take drugs
Smash or vandalize things
just for fun
chat on the computer
Frighten and annoy people
around us just for fun
Deviant group behaviour was measured by a subscale created out of four items, which asked
youngsters what kinds of activities they normally engage in, when hanging out with their
friends. This included, drinking a lot of alcohol, smashing or vandalizing for fun, shoplifting
just for fun, and frightening and annoying people for fun.
Delinquent behavior of friends
Whether or not the youngsters have friends involved in deviant or illegal behaviour is closely
related to lifestyle. Admitting to having delinquent friends is often used as an alternative way
of asking about one’s own involvement in delinquency. This is because respondents are often
more willing to admit that they have friends who do undesirable things, rather than admitting
to the fact that they do these things themselves. Research has shown that self-reported
delinquency of friends is strongly correlated to an adolescents’ own substance use (Mulvay,
2010, Richardson et al. 2003). In the ISRD-2 questionnaire, an item consisting of 5 possible
response choices concerning the delinquency of friends, preceded the section on self-
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reported delinquency and substance use, partly as a way of neutralizing the social desirability
effect. This question asks the youngster how many of their friends are involved in drug use,
shoplifting, burglary, extortion, or assault.
Most of the students do not have delinquent friends who commit serious offenses.
Only a small proportion have friends who committed a delinquent act such as, burglary
(7,5%), extortion (5.6%), or assault (8,3%). Having friends who shoplift is more common (32%),
and one out of four students have friends who use drugs.
Having friends who use any kinds of drugs is relevant as to a respondents’ own use,
especially in the case of soft and hard drugs. Students between the ages of 12 and 16, who
have friends who use (soft) drugs are 19 times more likely to use soft drugs themselves and 7
times more likely to use hard drugs.
Other types of peer delinquent behavior, is also of influence on a students’ substance
use. The correlation is stronger for stealing and hard drug use, while the more serious violent
offenses are related to alcohol as well as to drug use.
Table 5
Delinquent friends and substance use
I have friends:
who used soft or hard drugs like
Last
Life-
month
time
Binge
alcohol
alcohol
3.19***
3.98***
3.60***
1.72***
1.95***
1.30***
Hashish
Drugs
Abstine
life
last
last
nce
time
month
month
19.44**
*
1.21**
7.14***
0.24***
1.69***
14.72**
*
1.34***
0.81
0.51***
1.28***
1.40***
1.39***
1.54***
2.68***
0.75***
1.11*
1.04
1.31***
1.38***
1.47***
2.30***
0.91
1.78***
1.94***
1.91**
1.76***
1.71***
2.21***
0.49***
weed, hash, speed, heroin or coke.
stole something from a shop or
Hashish
department store.
stole something from a shop or
department store.
threatened somebody with a weapon
or to beat him up, just to get money
or other things from him.
beat someone up or hurt someone
badly with something like a stick or
knife.
Being a gang member
Most adolescents have a certain group of friends with whom they spend their time doing
things with or just hanging out (77.2%). In addition to risky group behavior, we also wanted to
know whether this group of friends consisted of ‘delinquent peers’. When a group of
delinquent adolescents band together they are usually defined as a gang. According to many
researchers, being a gang member is an important factor that influences juvenile
delinquency. The crime rates among the members of such groups are higher, especially for
serious and violent crimes (Haymoz & Gatti, 2010; Weerman & Esbensen, 2005). In this study,
we used the Eurogang definition (Klein, 2001) to determine whether an adolescent belongs to
a gang or not: ‘A street gang is any durable, street orientated youth group whose own identity
includes involvement in illegal activity’. The Eurogang definition consists of the following six
questions:
1. Do you have a group of friends?
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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
How long has this group existed ( > 3 months)?
Does this group spend a lot of time together in public places?
Is committing illegal acts accepted by your group?
Do people in your group actually commit illegal acts together?
Do you consider your group a gang?
In our study, an adolescent was considered to be a gang member only if he/she scored
affirmatively on all six items. Cronbach’s alpha for this scale is quite high at 0.77.
According to the research, only a small proportion of juveniles belonged to a gang
(4.03%, see Table 6 below). However, to better assess the meaning of this result we first
recorded the frequency of affirmative answers for the six questions. It should be pointed out
that all the percentages shown in the table refer to the whole sample and not only to those
who said that they have a group of friends.
Table 6 Percentage of youngsters who replied affirmatively to the questions relating to
the Eurogang definition
N = 41.335
Do you have a group of friends?
How long has this group existed ( > 3 months)?
Does this group spend a lot of time together in public places?
Is committing illegal acts accepted by your group?
Do people in your group actually commit illegal acts together?
Do you consider your group a gang?
76.3
69.5
75.4
19.8
16.8
14.4
Being a gang member
4.3
Here it is clear that a larger group of adolescents considered their group of friends to be a
gang (14.4%), in comparison to being classified as a gang member according to the six-point
definition by Eurogang (4%). These results reflect the usefulness of the different items for
defining whether someone is a gang member, rather than using a single question regarding
gang membership (see also Haymoz & Gatti, 2010). Thus, for many youngsters, the term
‘gang’ is probably more closely associated with the informal definition, which refers to a
group of people who associate regularly on a social basis, rather than, a delinquent group
whose identity revolves around illegal activities. Haymoz and Gatti (2010) suggest that the
term ‘delinquent youth group’ is more appropriate than the term ‘gang’.
Twice as many boys belong to a gang (2.6%), compared to girls (1.4%). This gender difference
is the smallest in the Anglo-Saxon countries and the largest in the Latin American and
Mediterranean countries, where almost three times as many boys are gang members than
girls. Although there are more boys involved in the gangs, these figures provide evidence to
support the fact that the gang phenomenon is not exclusively a male-oriented domain. Of all
the gang members, one-third (34.7%) are girls and the groups are mostly mixed (68.1%). There
is even a small proportion of gangs that consist exclusively of girls (4.5%).
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When we look at all the different scales, we see that those who actually commit delinquent
offenses and spend time with friends, who are involved in deviant activities, are at risk of
using alcohol and especially soft or hard drugs.
Table 7 Logistic regression for this behavior of the students themselves and of their
friends
Last
Lifestyle
Deviant group behaviour
Delinquent friends
Being a gang member
5
Life
Binge
Hashish
Hashish
Drugs
Abstine
nce
month
time
life
last
last
alcohol
alcohol
time
month
month
1.42***
1.77***
1.48***
4.32***
1.42***
1.75***
1.74***
3.78***
1,61***
1.70***
1.91***
6.27***
1.59***
1.76***
1.75***
7.12***
1,63***
1.87***
1.69***
9.39***
1,63***
1.73***
1.51***
4.57***
0.70
0.56***
0.56***
0.23***
Differences in leisure time and peers between the European countries
The second aim of this chapter is to look at whether and how these peer and leisure factors
differ between the various European countries. In other words, are there some particular
factors that influence the drinking behavior of adolescents stronger in some countries, than in
others? In the literature, we have not found any evidence to suggest that friends or leisure
time will have different effects on the consumption patterns of adolescents. Nonetheless, one
may expect that in Mediterranean countries, where it is more common to drink at home
during the meal than drinking with friends, the effect should be weaker, than in other
countries where it is more common to go out and drink alcohol with friends.
If we look at the influences of lifestyle, deviant group behaviour, delinquent friends
and gang membership, there is a significant relationship in all European countries involved in
this study. Especially being a gang member has a large impact on the drinking behavior of the
students during the last month. However, large discrepancies can be found between the
countries in regards to this relationship. For instance, in Spain, the odds that one will be
drinking if he or she is a member of a gang is 11.2 times higher, while in France, the odds are
2.3. There is also a strong relation between deviant group behaviour and alcohol use last
month. The highest odds ratios are found within Iceland (4.7), and the lowest in Lithuania
(1.7). Furthermore, lifestyle also has an influence on alcohol consumption but the differences
between the countries are not that large as for the other variables. We only detected a strong
correlation between alcohol use and having delinquent friends in Iceland, but it must be
noted that the data was only collected from students in the eighth grade.
Figure 4
Adjusted odds ratios of lifestyle, deviant group behaviour, delinquent
friends and gang member on last month alcohol prevalence.
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We also sought to find out whether there were any country differences in regards to the
relationship between binge drinking (five or more glasses the last time they have been
drinking) and how students spent their leisure time, having delinquent friends and extreme
alcohol consumption.
For all scales there is a significant relation between binge drinking and these scales,
within each country. However, we don’t see many differences in terms of lifestyle between
the countries for binge drinking. For deviant group behaviour, the lowest association was
found in Armenia, Cyprus, Italy, France and the Czech Republic and the largest in the Nordic
countries such as Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, and Germany, while the lowest odds
ratios were found in Armenia, Italy, Slovenia. For delinquent friends there were two outliers,
Iceland and Portugal (odds ratios: 4.17 end 4.37), while in the other countries is the odds
ratios ranged between 1.8 (France) and 2.4 (Austria).
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Figure 5
Adjusted odds ratios of lifestyle, deviant group behaviour, delinquent
friends and gang member on binge drinking
When we look at being a gang member, the odds ratios are lower for binge drinking than for
last month drinking. Again, the outlier here is Iceland. Nevertheless, although the data in
Iceland is only from eighth grades students, the relation between drinking and the influence
of deviant friends has consistently been the highest, especially for extreme drinking behavior,
like binge drinking. In terms of being a gang member, the lowest correlation can be found in
Denmark and the Netherlands where we know from other studies, that youngsters like to
drink outside the house with friends with the purpose of becoming intoxicated (ESPAD, 2006)
7.
Conclusion
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The adolescents involved in this survey vary enormously in terms of their lifestyles and the
way they spend their leisure time, and it is these factors, which influence their use of alcohol
and drugs. When youngsters spend more time with their friends, they are more likely to drink
alcohol. Being with friends as a leisure time activity is also related to other forms of
substance use, such as cannabis and hard drugs. Adolescents who spend more time engaging
in individual activities (e.g., reading books, doing homework) are less likely to drink alcohol.
Alcohol use is strongly related to going out at night. Thus, juveniles who go out more
frequently also tend to use more alcohol. Adolescents who are going out once or twice a week
are more likely to drink than those who stay at home. Going out increases this probability
even more. There are differences between countries with respect to the relationship between
going out and drinking behavior. In many of the Eastern European countries (e.g., Bosnia &
Herzegovina, Czech Republic and Russia), the relation between going out and drinking is less
strong than in most Western European countries. However, differences can be found in
Western Europe as well. For example, countries such as Sweden, Germany, Finland and the
Netherlands show stronger associations than Italy, Poland and France.
Youngsters who are more peer-oriented have a higher probability of drinking more
alcohol than youngsters who are more family-oriented. We also found that drinking in/with?
the family acted as a protective mechanism for problematic alcohol behavior, while drinking
with friends has a large impact on last month alcohol use. If adolescents spend more time
with a larger group of friends they are more likely to show excessive alcohol use. There is also
a strong relation between having friends who are delinquent, or being a member of a group
who commit illegal acts (gang membership), and the use of alcohol.
The results of this research suggest that policies regarding heavy alcohol consumption
should direct their attention towards youngsters who are more peer-oriented and are
frequently going out at night. Policies should focus on the social and psychological processes
in friendship groups that encourage alcohol consumption among its members. Furthermore,
guided drinking within the family could be an effective strategy in preventing excessive
drinking patterns.
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