How environments and persons combine to influence problem drinking. Current research issues

In this chapter, a brief review of existing empirical research on environmental correlates of problem drinking is presented. The review shows that environmental factors do relate to the prevalence of drinking problems and also to the way drinking problems are expressed. In the major section of the chapter, however, it is shown that our present knowledge of how environmental and personal factors combine to influence problem drinking is quite limited, perhaps because almost all of the existing empirical research has attempted to account for problem drinking by means of individual variables alone, environmental variables alone, or in terms of linear combinations of individual and environmental variables. It is shown that alternative approaches offer more promise for understanding how individual and environmental factors combine to influence problem drinking; these approaches are aimed at accounting for problem drinking in terms of the mutual interdependence between persons and their environments. Within two hypothetical sets of data, a number of conceptual and methodological issues, problems, and features of these kinds of interactional or transactional approaches are then illustrated. It is shown that although such approaches offer a promise of greater understanding, they also present a set of interrelated problems which run the gamut from measurement, statistical analysis, experimental design, and sampling issues to paradigm issues lying close to the realm of the philosophy of science.