Victor Alcohol Advertising Precis

Alcohol Advertising, Consumption and Abuse: a covariance- structural modeling look at strickland's data:
Edward M Adalf and Paul M. Krohn
Addiction Research Foundation, 33 Russell Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2S1 and York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Summary

Re-analysis employing covariance-structural models was conducted on Strickland’s (1983) survey data on 772 drinking students from grades 7, 9 and 11. This data bears on the relations among alcohol consumption, alcohol abuse, association with drinking peers and exposure to televised alcohol advertising. Whereas Strickland used a just-identified model which, therefore, could not be tested for goodness of fit, our re-analysis tested several alternate models, which could be contradicted by the data. Our model did fit his data particularly well. It’s major implications are as follows: (1) Symptomatic consumption, negative consequences and self-rated severity of alcohol-related problems apparently reflect a common underlying factor, namely alcohol abuse. (2) Use of alcohol to relieve distress and frequency of intoxication, however, appear not to reflect abuse, although frequent intoxication, however, appear not to reflect abuse, although, frequent intoxication contributes substantially to it. (3) Alcohol advertising affects consumption directly and abuse indirectly, although peer association has far greater impact on both consumption and abuse. These findings are interpreted as lending little support to further restrictions on advertising.