The social context of drinking and its association with days of heavy episodic drinking in the past month among a nationally representative sample of adolescents and young adults in the United States, 2021–23

Key Points

• The study aims to examine the relationship between social context and heavy episodic drinking (HED) among adolescents and young adults.
• Analyzed a nationally representative sample of adolescents and young adults who drank alcohol in the past month.
• Compared frequency of HED days among those who drank alone versus with others.
• Drinking alone was significantly associated with a higher number of HED days in the past month.
• No significant association was found for lower frequency categories of HED.