One of bales's 3 related hypotheses concerning how cultures or social structures influence the level of alcoholism in a population -that culturally determined attitudes toward drinking and intoxication determine whether alcohol will be used to relieve the stress generated in a society - is examined in the first systematic test of that hypothesis based on american data. A proscriptive norm index was computed for each of the 50 states. The proscriptive states are located in the southern region of the united states. Proscriptive norms are significantly correlated with all of the indicators of alcohol-related problems studied. It was found that driving while intoxicated and other alcohol-related arrests do not appear to arise as a response to the total amount of drinking. Instead, such alcohol-related problems appear to be a response to the strong cultural disapproval ofdrinking, with the proscriptively oriented states experiencing the highest rates of disruptive behaviors related to alcohol. The findings are consistent with a social control explanation for this link.
Samenvatting