Problem and Non-Problem Drinking among High School Students in Abstinence Communities

Cultural variation has been treated as an important factor in a number of current theories regarding the use and the misuse of beverage alcohol. The major assumption underlying these theories, normally designated as the sociocultural approach, is that within the cultural system of a group of people there is a general ethos or sense of decorum concerning the role of alcohol which in turn determines the type of response men make toward it (Pittman, 1967). Put in another way, the common fabric of values, symbols, and meanings shared by a group governs who drinks and drinking styles (Zucker, 1965). Explanations of an individual’s use or nonuse of intoxicants, therefore, can be accounted for in large measure by the cultural prescriptions for alcohol intake that are included in the social groups of which he is a member. Within American society, these cultural attitudes run the gamut from absolute prohibition to permissiveness toward moderate drinking (Pittman, 1967). One reflection of these differences is revealed by studies of the drinking patterns of rural and urban residents. In farm