Original articleEarly Adolescent Exposure to Alcohol Advertising and Its Relationship to Underage Drinking
Section snippets
Sample
Respondents were recruited through South Dakota elementary schools. Middle schools in districts where these schools were located participated in the evaluation of a school-based drug prevention intervention. That study involved 55 schools, 9 in cities with more than 50,000 residents, 11 in cities of 25,000 to 50,000, and the rest in rural areas across the state [25]. We capitalized on alliances with these districts to recruit elementary schools into the present study. Ninety percent of schools
Results
Seventeen percent of youth reported past year beer drinking at grade 7. Sixteen percent “definitely” or “probably” would drink in the next 6 months; 23% “probably would not”; 61% “definitely would not.” Partial associations for these outcomes (controlling grade 6 drinking) are displayed in Table 2. Results without this control were nearly identical, and are not displayed. The advertising exposure variables were all significant, positive predictors of grade 7 beer drinking and drinking
Discussion
Exposure to alcohol advertising during very early adolescence predicts both beer drinking and drinking intentions one year later. The joint effect of advertising exposure from all sources was significant after controlling for potentially confounding variables, including prior drinking. Their combined association with drinking was substantial. Children at extremely high levels of overall advertising exposure were subsequently 50% more likely to drink and 36% more likely to intend to drink as
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R01AA12127). We thank Nielsen Media Research for providing data concerning television alcohol advertising.
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