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Sunday, September 13, 2009

Geographic clustering of underage drinking and the influence of community characteristics
Drug and Alcohol Dependence Article in Press, 8 September 2009

The aim of this paper was to examine the extent to which underage drinking clusters geographically in a sample of communities, and to investigate the manner in which community-level contexts are related to this process.

Clustering of drunkenness and experiencing non-violent consequences as a result of drinking was greatest in the least economically disadvantaged and least disordered communities with the greatest percentage of married-couple families. The clustering of making a purchase attempt, however, was greatest in more disordered communities, specifically the largest communities with the highest degree of residential mobility and housing density.

These findings that clustering of underage drinking behaviors varies by community context has the potential for identifying the types of communities to target for underage drinking behavior-specific preventive interventions.


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