Drinking Culture? College and non-College Young Adults Drinking Behaviors in US and India

• In Event: Roundtable: Substance and Alcohol Abuse Research

Abstract

Despite drinking pattern differences across worldwide users, alcohol represents one of the main leading causes of morbidity and mortality as well as familial and socio-economic problems in the globe with approximately 2.3 billion users according to the Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health (World Health Organization, 2018). In fact, underage drinking and drinking among young adults currently represent a wide spread epidemic across nations; the US and India are not the exception. Far from being a generally accepted “rite of passage”, teenage and young adults drinking has become rampant during the last decade that has extended across different settings such as college campuses, community, work, and even high schools. Informed by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory and using a mixed-method cross-national approach, we aimed to identify common factors leading to alcohol use among college and non-college students in USA (n=306; 18-26yrs, 100% female) and India (n-13=18-25yrs; 100% male).
Practical and empirical implications will be discussed for multidisciplinary professionals working on prevention/intervention efforts with alcohol users across different cultural contexts. Lessons learned from the authors’ experience working with alcohol users including but not limited to sampling, cross-national mixed-methodology and data collection challenges will be further discussed to inform similar efforts.

Authors

• Manju Chawla, University of Wisconsin - Stout

• Elizabeth Trejos-Castillo, Texas Tech University