Different Alcohol Types-Different Models of Drinking:

Abstract

A classroom survey among 3061 secondary school students in four provinces in Zimbabwe aimed at enabling analysis of social and cultural predictors for use of alcohol and other drugs. The present paper focuses on the relationship between choice of different alcohol types and two indicators for regular drinking. A two-stage sampling strategy distinguished between four different sociocultural subgroups. Measures on experience with different alcohol types were subject to a principal component analysis, revealing one imported (or western) alcohol component and one traditional (or indigenous) alcohol component with the industrially produced opaque beer Chibuku loading on both. Multiple logistic regression revealed experience with western alcohol types to be associated with indicators for frequent drinking as well as experience with being drunk. Experience with use of the traditional alcohol types was not associated with self-reported experience with being drunk. Use of Chibuku was, however, associated with such experience for boys. It is suggested that an integration of traditional and western drinking culture represents reduced danger for socially disruptive modes of drinking among adolescents as compared to a one-sided adoption of western patterns.