ALCOHOLISM SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES

Alcoholism Social Consequences



Alcoholism Social Consequences

Introduction

Alcohol can act as a cause at several levels of determination. Pharmacological causality is the easiest to prove or disprove, and the use of the term “cause” tends to be limited to this type of cause and effect as found in the natural sciences. Research has shown, however, that alcohol consumption has causal effects at several different levels outside the sphere of natural science. Studies in different cultures show that the same type of consumption may have very different outcomes. Quite large differences are found even among industrialized societies in Europe. Psychological experiments have shown that people's beliefs about alcohol and its effects determine how they behave after drinking. Similar experiments have shown the importance of situational factors, the setting and the social context in which drinking occurs, for determining the social consequences of drinking. A useful way to grasp the variety of ways in which alcohol consumption can have social consequences is to contrast the social conditions in alcohol-consuming societies with those that might exist in a totally alcohol-free society.

Alcohol and the Social Consequences

Friends are part of the social environment in which young people learn how to drink and how to behave after drinking. The influence is mutual: young people are selected to be friends of drinkers because of their drinking habits and their attitudes towards alcohol; and young people - as well as adults - select their friends in accordance with their own drinking preferences. Thus, networks of friends share a certain compatibility with regard to alcohol. These mutual processes are often hidden under the label “peer pressure”. In many cultures, there is a recurrent theme of conflict between familial obligations and drinking with friends (Single, E, 1997).

When alcohol determines much of the style and content of a person's life, it also becomes a major determinant of networks of friends. The quality of friendships and the effects of alcohol on friendships should not be judged entirely according to middle-class values. Alcohol-dependent individuals, including those “on skid row”, can form intense and supportive friendships. Alcohol induces considerable emotional instability, however, and this is reflected in the interaction within such friendship groups. In a disproportionate number of violent crimes, both offender and victim come from the same alcohol-abusing circle of friends and acquaintances (Velleman, R. & Orford, J, 1990).

Women, especially young women, encounter special risks in groups of drinking friends and acquaintances. In many societies, a woman who drinks seems to signal that she is at least approachable, and to some men an intoxicated woman is by definition sexually available. Such concepts as “acquaintance rape” and “date rape” bear witness to recent concern with this problem. A large proportion of unwanted sexual advances are mediated by alcohol (Single, E. et al, 1999).

Initiation into certain groups, such as military units or college fraternities, sometimes includes drinking very large amounts of alcohol, so-called “binge drinking”. This pattern of drinking entails high risks of accidental injury, violence and acute ...