GOING AGAINST-THE-GRAIN - SMOKING AND HEAVY DRINKING AMONGST THE BRITISH MIDDLE CLASSES

This paper examines the characteristics of those members of the Britis h middle classes who 'go against the grain' of healthy living by both smoking and drinking alcohol over recommended levels. Using logistic r egression procedures on GHS data, it concludes that there are signific ant gender differences, with men being much more likely to adopt such risky health behaviours than women. Further, the social correlates of such behaviours differ for men and women. For men, such behaviours are significantly associated with marital status, the experience of socia l mobility and region. For women, such behaviours are associated with the presence of dependent children, educational level and the number o f hours worked in paid employment. The paper attempts some tentative i nterpretations of these results by drawing upon the available sociolog ical literature.