NATIONAL STUDY OF ADOLESCENT DRINKING BEHAVIOR, ATTITUDES AND CORRELATES

Responses are given to Marden et al''s comments with respect to a Research Triangle Institute (RTI) report on adolescent drinking prepared based on a national survey of junior and senior high-school students in North Carolina [USA] in 1974. Marden et al.''s comments focus on specific areas: the timing of the survey; the relatively high estimates of alcohol content contributing to the high level of reported alcohol consumption; the use of "cans" as a measure of quantity of beer consumption which may distort quantity measures and lower the reported numbers; defining drinking levels by the number of reported drinks and not by ounces of alcohol; the classification scheme which overlooks other individual attributes such as body weight and duration of drinking episodes; and the lack of a clear demarcation between social drinking and problem drinking. Although there are constraints and limitations in the RTI study (i.e., in-school population, self-report), it does constitute an important data base with respect to adolescent drinking patterns and correlates and is the only comprehensive survey of this age group conducted nationally.