Social background, attitudes and personality in a three-year follow-up study of alcohol consumers

Eight hundred and forty-one men from the Canton of Zürich selected from a complete survey of males born in 1952 answered a questionnaire at age 19 and again three years later about their consumption of alcohol, drugs and cigarettes, social status, and social integration. The Freiburger Personality Inventory was used for personality assessment. Abuse of alcohol was connected with the following risk factors: lack of social integration, negative relations with parents, frequent relations with the peer group, heavy cigarette and cannabis consumption and lower social status of the father. Less important were: level of education, personality traits (emotional lability, extraversion), low fitness activities and the parental drinking pattern. Emotional lability was not increased in the heavy consumption group, but was rather a personality trait already existing before regular alcohol consumption began.