the teenage origins of students' drinking habits tomi lintonen research director, the finnish...

The teenage origins of students' drinking habits

Tomi LintonenResearch director, The Finnish Foundation for Alcohol StudiesAdjunct professor, University of Tampere

• Monitoring systems for adolescent drinking• Drinking habits from11 to 18 years of age

• Prevalence figures and diversity• Drinking patterns and characteristics• Trends in adolescent drinking• Factors associated with drinking• Alcoholic beverage choices• Drinking-related harm

• Drinking trajectories from teenage to adulthood

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Monitoring 11 to 15 year-olds’ alcohol drinking and other health behaviours

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Monitoring 15 year-olds’ alcohol and other drug use

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When do people start drinking alcohol?

• For European countries, the median proportion of 11 year-olds drinking alcohol at least once a week is 2% for girls and 4% for boys– At the age of 13, the European median is 7%– At the age of 15, the European median is 22%

• The percentage of 11 year-olds that report having been drunk at least twice in their lifetime is 1% for girls and 2% for boys– At the age of 13, the European median is 9%– At the age of 15, the European median is 33%

Source: http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/163857/Social-determinants-of-health-and-well-being-among-young-people.pdf

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Cross-national variability in drinking at age 15: boys

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Cross-national variability in drinking at age 15: girls

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Cross-national variability in drunkenness: boys

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Cross-national variability in drunkenness: girls

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Time-trends in teenage drinking: Finland

Source: Adolescent health and lifestyle surveys 1977-2011 10

Time-trends in teenage drunkenness: Finland

Source: Adolescent health and lifestyle surveys 1977-2011 11

Cohort drinking trajectories: Finland

Source: Adolescent health and lifestyle surveys 1977-2011 12

Selected literature on factors associated with adolescent drinking• Lintonen TP, Rimpelä MK, Vikat A, Rimpelä AH (2000): The effect of societal

changes on drunkenness trends in early adolescence. Health Education Research 15:261-269.

• Lintonen TP, Konu AI, Rimpelä MK (2001): Identifying potential heavy drinkers in early adolescence. Health Education 101:159-168.

• Kouvonen A, Lintonen T (2002): Adolescent part-time work and heavy drinking in Finland. Addiction 97:311-318.

• Huurre T, Lintonen T, Kaprio J, Pelkonen M, Marttunen M, Aro H (2010): Adolescent risk factors for excessive alcohol use at age 32 years. A 16-year prospective follow-up study. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 45(1): 125-134.

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Adolescent beverage choices and harm• Lintonen TP, Konu AI (2001): Drunkenness-related alcoholic beverage choices

among adolescents. Journal of Substance Use 6:16-21.• Lintonen T, Konu A (2003): Adolescent Alcohol Beverage Type Choices Reflect their

Substance Use Patterns and Attitudes. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 32(4): 279-289

• Mattila V, Parkkari J, Lintonen T, Kannus P, Rimpelä A (2005): Occurrence of violence and violence related intentional injuries among 12- to 18-year-old Finns. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 33: 307-313.

• Lavikainen H, Ahlström S, Metso L, Nevalainen J, Lintonen T (2008): The relationship between negative experiences and drinking experience among 15 to 16 year-old adolescents in Finland. European Addiction Research 14(3): 169-178.

• Lavikainen H, Lintonen T (2009): Alcohol use in adolescence: Identifying harms related to teenager's alcohol drinking. Journal of Substance Use 14(1):39-48.

• Lavikainen H, Lintonen T, Kosunen E (2009): Sexual behavior and drinking style among Finnish teenagers – a population-based study. Health Promotion International 24(2): 108-119.

• Lavikainen H, Salmi V, Aaltonen M, Lintonen T (2011): Alcohol-related harms and risk behaviours among adolescents: Does drinking style matter? Journal of Substance Use 16(3): 243-255. 14

Individual drinking trajectories

•Feldman, B. J., Masyn, K. E., & Conger, R. D. (2009). New approaches to studying problem behaviors: A comparison of methods for modeling longitudinal, categorical adolescent drinking data. Developmental Psychology, 45, 652–676. doi:10.1037/a0014851•Jackson, K. M., & Sher, K. J. (2005). Similarities and differences of longitudinal phenotypes across alternate indices of alcohol involvement: A methodologic comparison of trajectory approaches. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 19, 339–351. doi:10.1037/0893-164X.19.4.339•Schulenberg, J., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., Wadsworth, K. N., & Johnston, L. D. (1996). Getting drunk and growing up: Trajectories of frequent binge drinking during the transition to young adulthood. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 57, 289–304.•Toumbourou, J. W., Williams, I. R., Snow, P. C., & White, V. M. (2003). Adolescent alcohol-use trajectories in the transition from high school. Drug and Alcohol Review, 22, 111–116. doi:10.1080/ 09595230100100534•Wiesner, M., Weichold, K., & Silbereisen, R. K. (2007). Trajectories of alcohol use among adolescent boys and girls: Identification, validation, and sociodemographic characteristics. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 21, 62–75. doi:10.1037/0893-164X.21.1.62

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Students’ drinking histories

• Almost all students entering university drink alcohol

• A sizeable proportion of them drink until drunk• However, the impression on adolescent

drinking is distorted by the high visibility of drunken behaviour occuring in public places

• The is notable diversity in drinking histories and patterns

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