Alcohol-abusing teenage boys. Testing a hypothesis on alcohol abuse and personality factors, using a personality...

This is the second part of an investigation of alcohol-abusing teenage boys, focusing on personality. One group of 50 High-consumers and one group of 50 0-consumers were selected from 862 18-year-old boys in the general population summoned to the Regional Recruiting and Replacement Office in Solna. These boys answered a personality inventory (KSP) to test a hypothesis on alcohol abuse and personality factors which might indicate psychopathy. The results support the hypothesis that alcohol-abusing teenage boys have psychopathic personality traits while the non-consuming boys have normal personalities. The study cannot reveal whether the differences in personality were the result of the high alcohol consumption or if the psychopathic personality traits preceded the high consumption. A reasonable hypothesis for further research is that vulnerable boys living under poor social conditions react to their situation with motoric restlessness, impulsiveness and aggressive acting-out behaviour. Due to this their social adjustment as grown ups is poor with consequent alcohol and drug abuse and criminality.