Social stress, normative constraints and alcohol problems in American states

Robert Bales' theory explains rates of alcoholism in populations by the combination of socially induced stress and tension together with a normative system that promotes the use of alcohol for releasing that tension. This paper provides the first systematic test of that theory by combining the variables of social stress and normative approval of alcohol within the same research design. Ecological correlations are used with the 50 states as units of analysis. Stress was measured by a 'state stress index' based on 15 stressful 'life events' aggregated to the state level. Events vary from rates of divorce to community disaster. Normative constraints on drinking were measured by a multi-indicator proscriptive norms index based on religious composition and legal impediments to the purchase and consumption of alcohol. The states were divided into quartiles based on normative constraints surrounding alcohol use from proscriptive to permissive. Alcohol problems were measured by three indicators of heavy drinking and three indicators of alcohol related arrests. All but one of the 24 correlations between the state stress index and the indicators of alcohol problems were highest within the context of strong cultural support for the use of alcohol, thus supporting Bales' original theory. For the arrest variables there was also a clear pattern of curvilinearity, with a second distinct 'peak' in the correlations within the polar opposite quartile of proscriptive states. Competing explanations for the pattern are discussed including the 'social control' hypothesis and the 'ambivalence' hypothesis.