Informal Alcohol Control in Six EU Countries

This article describes differences between Finland, Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy regarding having influenced someone to drink less alcohol. Representative samples of around 1,000 respondents 18–64 years old in each country were analyzed. Informal alcohol control was measured by questions on whether the respondent reported having influenced someone in any of eight categories of family members and friends to drink less. People in Italy significantly more often reported having pressured someone to drink less (38%) compared with the average rate (32%). In multivariate logistic regressions, people in France and Sweden were significantly less likely to report this. The higher rate in Italy was due to Italian men's high likelihood of trying to persuade both friends and family members to drink less compared with men in other countries. Differences among these six European countries regarding informal control of alcohol appear to be greater among men than among women.