Country variations in family members' informal pressure to drink less

The paper examines how family members in 18 countries attempt to influence each other to drink less. Data come from the GENACIS (Gender, Alcohol and Culture: an International Study) dataset. Countries included were Argentina, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, India, Japan, Nigeria, Norway, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Uganda, UK and Uruguay (overall sample 44,115). In each country, the percentage of people who had experienced family member pressure to drink less were compared to country abstinence rate, mean drinking volume per drinker and other societal-level factors. While countries differed greatly on proportion of drinkers having experienced family members' pressure to drink less, in all countries drinking women reported less pressure than drinking men in their own society. In all studied countries, informal pressure was exerted most often by the spouse or sexual partner. However, other family members were also involved. Informal pressure was found to be highly correlated with the country's socioeconomic conditions. Informal pressure to drink less by family members is on one hand an expression of social and family problems, caused by heavy drinking, especially in the economically less developed countries, suggesting alcohol-related deprivation. On the other hand, similar gender differences were seen in all the societies, men reporting receiving more informal pressure than women. Thus, informal pressure to drink less tended to reflect the gender conflict caused by heavy use of alcohol by men.