Cultural Orientation and Alcohol-Type Preferences among Adolescents in Four Sociocultural Subgroups in Zimbabwe

Abstract

A classroom survey among 3,061 secondary school students in four different socio-cultural subgroups was conducted in Zimbabwe. Structural equation modelling was applied to explore the relationship among sociodemographic variables, school children's cultural orientation, and alcohol-type preferences. A model with local and global orientation as mediators explained 17% of the variance in reported use of imported alcohol types and 2.4% of the variance in use of traditional alcohol types. Global cultural orientation was positively associated with reported experimenting with, and use of, both imported and traditional alcohol types, whereas local orientation was negatively associated with use of imported alcohol types and positively associated with use of traditional alcohol types.