Are Heavier drinkers’ Views on Situational Drinking Norms Affected by Recent Experience of Harm from others’ Drinking?

Abstract

Objective The relation is investigated between situational drinking norms which accept heavier drinking and the experience of harm from others’ drinking. How does the experience of such harm relate to the acceptance of heavier drinking in drinking situations? Methods Respondents in a 2021 combined sample from random digitally dialed mobile phones and a panel survey of Australian adults (n = 2,574) were asked what level of drinking is acceptable in 11 social situations, including 3 “wet” situations where drinking is generally acceptable. Besides their own drinking patterns, respondents were also asked about their experience of harm from others’ drinking in the last 12 months. Focussing on respondents’ answers concerning the wetter situations, regression analyses were used to examine the relation between experiencing such harm and views on how much drinking was acceptable in the situations. Results Heavier drinkers were more likely to have experienced harm from others’ drinking. Among heavier drinkers, those who experienced such harm generally did not differ significantly in their normative acceptance of any drinking in “wet” situations but were more accepting of drinking enough to feel the effects. Discussion From these cross-sectional results, experiencing harm from others’ drinking does not seem to result in less acceptance of drinking to intoxication; rather, experiencing such harm was associated with more acceptance of heavy drinking. However, these findings may be the net result of influences in both directions, with the acceptance of intoxication in wet situations being more common among heavier drinkers, whose drinking exposes them to harm from others’ drinking.