UNDER AGE DRINKING, ALCOHOL SALES AND COLLECTIVE EFFICACY:
INFORMAL CONTROL AND OPPORTUNITY IN THE
STUDY OF SUBSTANCE USE

Underage drinking is a growing public concern among American youth. Nevertheless, while extensive research has identified individual level predictors of this phenomenon, only few studies have theorized and tested the effect of structural social forces on children’s and youths’ alcohol consumption. In attempt to address this gap we study the simultaneous effects of personality, familial and residential environments on children’s and youths’ underage drinking. Integrating informal social control and opportunity explanations of deviance, we first suggest that while informal social controls (i.e. parental supervision and neighborhood collective efficacy) prevents adolescents’ underage drinking, individuals’ access to local alcohol retail shops encourages such behavior. Focusing on the interactive effects of communal opportunities and controls, we then suggest that neighborhood collective efficacy reduces the probability of alcohol retail shops to lead to underage drinking. Using the unprecedented data design available in the PHDCN we test our theoretical model. Results from a series of multilevel logit models with robust standard errors reveal support in our hypotheses; specifically, we find that family supervision prevents children and youth alcohol consumption and that, alcohol sales in the neighborhood increases adolescent’s alcohol use. In addition, while the direct effect of collective efficacy is insignificantly related with children’s and youths’ alcohol consumption, our models suggest that it significantly reduces the probability of local alcohol retails to result in underage drinking.

View Flyer