Wadolowski, M and Bruno, R and Aiken, A and Stone, C and Najman, J and Kypri, K and Slade, T and Hutchinson, D and McBride, N and Mattick, RP, Sipping, drinking, and early adolescent alcohol consumption: a cautionary note, Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 39, (2) pp. 350-354. ISSN 0145-6008 (2015) [Refereed Article]
Copyright 2015 by the Research Society on Alcoholism
Methods: Participants were 1,843 grade 7 adolescents recruited across 49 Australian secondary schools (M age = 12.4, SD = 0.5). Quantity and frequency of lifetime and past 6-month consumption were assessed, distinguishing between sipping and drinking. For comparison with international population surveys, quantity was reported as any consumption, sipping only, and drinking only.
Results: Combining sipping and drinking into a single category, lifetime consumption was reported by 67.3% of the present sample. Distinguishing lifetime consumption by sipping and drinking: only 7.8% of adolescents had consumed a whole beverage; the remaining 59.6% had only sipped. Consumption of whole beverages was mostly limited to 1 to 2 drinks (84.2% of drinkers). Sipping and drinking were also infrequent: 78.2% of sipping and 60.4% of drinking, occurred less than monthly. Heavy episodic consumption was uncommon (1.2% of the sample). When other population studies were inspected, a clear trend for higher drinking rates were found in those studies where sipping was counted as drinking and vice versa.
Conclusions: Consumption of whole beverages appears infrequent in early adolescence, as sipping, but not drinking, was common in our sample. Comparing the present data with international population consumption measures highlights the need to more precisely measure and report adolescent consumption, particularly in relation to sipping.
|Item Type:||Refereed Article|
|Keywords:||adolescents, alcohol, epidemiology, public health|
|Research Division:||Psychology and Cognitive Sciences|
|Research Group:||Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences|
|Research Field:||Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified|
|Objective Group:||Public Health (excl. Specific Population Health)|
|Objective Field:||Substance Abuse|
|UTAS Author:||Bruno, R (Associate Professor Raimondo Bruno)|
|Web of Science® Times Cited:||8|
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