Social Network’s Relation to Binge Drinking Among Adults Explained

Summary: Those who live in neighborhoods that are considered safe, orderly, and have a more interconnected social environment are at higher risk of embarking on binge drinking episodes, a new study reports.

Source: Indiana University

For some people, social gatherings can be a time to imbibe. And for some, that can turn into a time to overindulge. But how do your neighborhood and your social network affect binge drinking?

Along with colleagues at the RAND corporation in Santa Monica, Indiana University researcher Hank Green examined how neighborhood and social network characteristics were related to adult binge drinking. He and his co-authors found that both factors play a role in how much someone drinks, information that can help us better understand binge drinking among adults.

The study was published in the journal Health and Place.

“Adults living in cohesive neighborhoods where people get along, help and look out for one another had a lower likelihood of any binge drinking at all compared to those living in less cohesive neighborhoods,” the co-authors point out.

“Living in a highly cohesive neighborhood may impact social norms and constrain behavior in such a way that binge drinking is very unlikely, even if the opportunity to drink arises,” Green said.

The researchers also found that, for those who live in neighborhoods they consider safe and orderly, and who have a more interconnected social network, the likelihood of social drinking increases, and drinking heavily might occur in those social drinking situations, regardless of how cohesive they find their neighborhood to be.

However, the study also found that those neighborhood and network factors also restrict how often someone binge-drinks, probably through social control processes such as friends and neighbors looking out for each other or commenting on someone’s drinking, etc.

“We also found that binge drinking was more likely among adults who lived in orderly neighborhoods and who had denser social networks, but reported lower neighborhood cohesion,” said Green, associate professor at the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington.

In neighborhoods ranked by study participants as disordered, unsafe, and lacking cohesion, neighborhood factors lose their overall impact. Social networks tend to take over the role of social control, according to the study. In these types of neighborhoods, it’s people with more interconnected social networks who binge less often.

Researchers utilized online surveys from adults ages 30-80 drawn randomly from the RAND American Life Panel. The main predictor variables were neighborhood cohesion (do neighbors help neighbors, do neighbors get along); neighborhood order (my neighborhood is clean, safe); and social network density. Associations of these measures with past month binge drinking (any, number of days) were examined, controlling for demographic characteristics.

Green said the study could help inform intervention practices such as cognitive behavioral therapy because those approaches already focus on identifying people and places that trigger binge drinking and addressing those triggers with behavioral changes.

This shows a group of people with glasses of beer
In neighborhoods ranked by study participants as disordered, unsafe, and lacking cohesion, neighborhood factors lose their overall impact. Image is in the public domain

Indirectly, Green said, the study suggests that those interventions could also focus on people and places that discourage binge drinking or facilitate less frequent binge drinking and better drinking choices.

Those interventions could also consider a broader definition of “place” that moves beyond a specific location to consider how larger areas like neighborhoods might impact drinking.

“Because neighborhood and social network factors work in tandem to affect the likelihood of binge drinking and the frequency of binge drinking, interventions for problem drinking should incorporate both of these aspects to make them more effective,” Green said.

Funding: The study was funded by ongoing National Institutes of Health grants to explore how social networks impact adult health.

About this social neuroscience research news

Source: Indiana University
Contact: April Toler – Indiana University
Image: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Closed access.
Associations of social capital with binge drinking in a national sample of adults: The importance of neighborhoods and networks” by Hank Green et al. Health and Place


Abstract

Associations of social capital with binge drinking in a national sample of adults: The importance of neighborhoods and networks

Background

While considerable research on adult binge drinking has focused on social influences, the potential role of social capital has been largely overlooked. This study examines the role of social capital, assessed in terms of both neighborhood and social network characteristics, in understanding adult binge drinking.

Methods

Adults ages 30–80 were randomly drawn from the RAND American Life Panel and completed an online survey (analytic sample n = 1383). The main predictor variables were neighborhood cohesion, neighborhood order, and social network density. Associations of social capital with past month binge drinking (any, number of days) were examined, controlling for demographic characteristics.

Results

Zero-inflated negative binominal regression analysis indicated that any binge drinking was more likely among adults who lived in highly ordered neighborhoods and who had denser social networks but was negatively associated with neighborhood cohesion. However, binge drinking was more frequent among those who lived in neighborhoods lacking order and who had sparser social networks, but had no association with neighborhood cohesion. Age was not found to moderate associations of social capital with binge drinking.

Conclusions

Given that the associations of social capital with adult binge drinking behavior appear to differ by level of influence and type of drinking behavior, there is a need to gain a more nuanced understanding of these complex associations, including the mechanisms through which they operate.

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