Antecedents and covariates of high alcohol consumption in young men

The role of social, behavioral, and psychological characteristics and other risk indicators for high alcohol consumption in young men was analyzed using a survey of 49,464 Swedish conscripts. A strong association between an increasing weight of adverse social and behavioral risk indicators on the one hand and high alcohol consumption on the other was found. Yet many high consumers had no or few risk indicators. In multivariate analysis, substance use and indicators of deviant behavior came out as the strongest risk indicators for high alcohol consumption. Indicators of poor social background generally had relatively low odds ratios. Poor home wellbeing, for instance, had an odds ratio of 0.9. Social group of father was nonsignificant. Very good family economy had a higher odds ratio, 1.7, than average or poor family economy. Psychosomatic symptoms had relatively low odds ratios. Among psychological variables, low emotional control had a significantly elevated odds ratio of 1.8. Increased odds ratios were found for conscripts who were never anxious or never felt insecure. In conclusion, although many high consumers of alcohol had no or few risk indicators, we identified a high-risk group characterized by high levels of alcohol consumption and several indicators of personality disturbances, early deviant behavior, and social maladjustment.