News — How much alcohol a person drinks is strongly linked to how much their peers drink—and not just among teens and young adults. A new study of mature adults, published in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research, has found that adults’ social connections influence a person’s drinking, both contemporaneously and over time. And, an individual’s social network is more influential in changing their drinking behavior over time than other factors, such as their occupation or smoking. The study highlights the importance of understanding social connections in order to design interventions for mature adults who drink heavily.
Prior studies have found that peer pressure, family dynamics, and social environment play a critical role in whether adolescents begin and continue to engage in substance use. However, there have been fewer studies of factors contributing to drinking among mature adults, who have more alcohol-related health risks and different social environments, stressors, and coping behaviors than teens and young adults.
The current study sought to fill this gap in the research by examining how the drinking behaviors of adults with an average age of 55 years old related to factors such as smoking and their perceived job prestige, as well as the drinking behaviors of their peers.
All of the study’s analyses of social networks found that, for mature adults, the social environment plays a crucial role in influencing individual drinking behavior. Individual drinking was highly correlated with the contemporaneous drinking behavior of their peers, and, over time, their drinking behavior both influences and is influenced by their social network. People who drank more were more likely to show an increase over time in the proportion of connections with those who drink heavily, while those who drank less showed an increase over time in the proportion of connections who abstain from alcohol. Those who had an increase in the number of heavy drinking connections increased their drinking over time, while those who had an increase in the number of friends or family who abstained from alcohol drank less over time.
The study found that higher perceived job prestige tended to be associated with more regular drinking, fewer connections who abstain from alcohol, and less smoking. However, there were no clear associations over time between smoking habits, job prestige, and drinking, suggesting that the social environment is a more influential factor in modifying drinking behavior than smoking or socioeconomic status.
Data for this study came from the Framingham Heart Study, an ongoing longitudinal study that began in 1948. Researchers analyzed self-reported information about drinking and smoking behaviors. Social connections consisted of friendships, familial ties, and individuals living at the same address, as obtained through self-report and municipal data. The 30 years of data used for this study were collected between 1971 and 2003, so they may not apply to contemporary populations.
The study authors recommend additional research with more detailed data to better understand the nuances of social connections among mature adults, including different age groups or sexes.
Societal spirits in the silver streak: Unraveling complexity in drinking habits of the mature adult population. M. van den Ende, R. Freischel, H. van der Maas, R. Wiers, S. Epskamp.
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