A Mixed Methods Cross‐Cultural Study to Compare Youth Drinking Cultures in Italy and the USA

Aims To compare the drinking cultures of youth in the USA and in Italy. Method Sequential explanatory mixed method design. Phase 1: Multigroup latent class analysis was used to identify subgroups of drinkers from samples of 424 (61.3% female) Italian and 323 American college students (57.3% female)....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied psychology : health and well-being 2020-03, Vol.12 (1), p.231-255
Main Authors: Aresi, Giovanni, Cleveland, Michael J., Vieno, Alessio, Beccaria, Franca, Turrisi, Robert, Marta, Elena
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Alcohol
Alcohol Drinking in College - ethnology
Alcohol use
Childhood
Clinical medicine
Cross cultural studies
Cross-Cultural Comparison
cross‐cultural research
Discrepancies
Drinking behavior
drinking cultures
Drinks
Female
Focus groups
Humans
Italy
Italy - ethnology
Latent class analysis
Male
Mixed methods research
Permissiveness
Risk-Taking
Social norms
Social Norms - ethnology
Socialization
United States - ethnology
USA
Young Adult
young adults
Youth
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Summary:Aims To compare the drinking cultures of youth in the USA and in Italy. Method Sequential explanatory mixed method design. Phase 1: Multigroup latent class analysis was used to identify subgroups of drinkers from samples of 424 (61.3% female) Italian and 323 American college students (57.3% female). Phase 2: Focus group interviews with 41 Italian and 47 American youth were used to collect narratives on features of the two drinking cultures. Results Four partially invariant subgroups of drinkers were found. Most participants (>75%) in both countries concentrated drinking during weekends. Overall, US drinkers displayed greater probabilities to report risky drinking behaviors and experience negative consequences as compared to comparable subgroups of Italian drinkers. Discrepancies in terms of socialisation processes during childhood (i.e. permissiveness) and underlying cultural assumptions with regard to alcohol consumption (i.e. purposes of alcohol use) may explain differences in how alcohol is used in the two countries. Conclusions Findings suggest that there are crucial differences in societal schema of beliefs, informal social norms, practices, and values attached to alcoholic beverages across the USA and Italy. These results demonstrate the need for culturally tailored alcohol preventive interventions and clinical practice targeted to young people that capitalise on such differences.
ISSN:1758-0846
1758-0854
DOI:10.1111/aphw.12181