ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AND THE PERCEIVED SITUATIONAL APPROPRIATENESS OF CONSUMING DIFFERENT TYPES OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES

Based on a 1986 national probability sample of 2401 Americansaged 21 years and over (1069 of whom were deemed ‘drinkers’on the basis of having drunk at least one alcoholic beveragein the past seven days), this study analyses the relationshipbetween respondents' perceptions of how appropriate it is toconsume either beer, wine, distilled spirits, or wine coolersin each of six social contexts (namely, at a bar, at a bailgame,‘when the party's really rolling’, at a celebration,as a perfect complement to a nice dinner, and after a particularlyrough, i.e. difficult, day) and subsequent alcohol consumptionby these same individuals. It was hypothesized that people who considered it appropriateto drink a given beverage type would drink more of that beveragethan those individuals who deemed consumption of that type ofalcohol to be inappropriate. Results indicated that this isvalid for certain of the social occasions, in terms of the useof beer, distilled spirits and wine. Wine cooler consumption,however, was found to be unrelated to people's perceptions ofhow appropriate it is to drink in different social situations.