SITUATIONAL NORMS FOR DRINKING AND DRUNKENNESS - TRENDS IN THE US ADULT-POPULATION, 1979-1990

Drinking depends on time, place, situation and personal characteristic s. Patterns and trends in situational drinking norms (subjective level s of acceptable consumption for various situations) for US adults are reported Results are based on eight comparable normative questions fro m national household surveys conducted in 1979 (n = 1772), 1984 (n = 5 221 including Hispanic and black oversamples) and 1990 (n = 2058). Acr oss years and population subgroups, a correspondence in ordering of si tuations on acceptability of drinking and of drunkenness was found. Th ere were contrasting secular trends in the acceptability of drunkennes s in different situations: drinking ''enough to feel the effects'' bec ame more acceptable when at home but less acceptable in several other situations, particularly for men at a bar. For a decreasing percentage of respondents of both genders, it remains more acceptable for men th an women to drink in bars, but gender norms in such ''wetter'' situati ons were converging by 1990. Men remain more accepting of drinking (bu t not drunkenness) for ''dryer'' situations such as when driving, but the trend Is towards reduced acceptance. Multiple regression models pr edicting ''acceptance of drinking'' and ''acceptance of drunkenness'' scores showed fair stability in explanatory variables over time, with drinking level and conservative Protestant affiliation (drinking) or a ge (drunkenness) the major contributors.