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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