When anthropology meets epidemiology: using social representations to predict drinking patterns

Based on a sample of 2,015 adult drinkers from the Montreal metropolitan area (Quebec, Canada), this study investigates the relationship between eight social representations of drinking (i.e., compensatory, convivial, relaxing, disinhibitory, harmful, sexually enhancing, conventional, socially enabling) and drinking measures (QF Index, drinking frequency, and maximum number of drinks on one occasion) according to age and sex. The representations explain up to 34% of the variance in drinking measures. Representations differed in the strength of their relation to drinking measures and in population prevalence. Strength of relation to drinking and prevalence rates were relatively independent. Representations were generally more strongly endorsed by men than women, although they were related in the same way to drinking behaviors. Representations were also more strongly endorsed by younger than by older respondents, and they related differently to drinking in each age group. The implications of these results for prevention are discussed.