While research in alcohol harms to others (AHTO) has described the characteristics of people whose drinking affects others, few studies have investiga…

A recent book by an international team of authors theorises the social, cultural and economic shifts accompanying the decline in youth alcohol consumption observed in many high-income countries since ...

On this month’s podcast we spoke to Professor John Holmes, University of Sheffield, and Amy Pennay, La Trobe University, about their new book: Young People, Alcohol, and Risk: A Culture of Caution. W...

Campaigns designed to help us cut back on alcohol don’t always reach those most at risk of harm. Here’s what we should be doing instead.

Objective: This article considers how harm from others' drinking is distributed across several economic and environmental factors. Method: Economic, environmental, demographic, and drinking measures include household income, financial disadvantage indicators, and home spaciousness; neighborhood socioeconomic status, connections, and safety; and respondent's gender, age group, and risky drinking status. This article explores the interactions of these factors with harms from the drinking of others in a 2021 survey of 2,574 Australian adults. Results: The home's degree of crowding (persons per bedroom) is related to harms from others in the household, whereas financial disadvantage is related to harms from drinkers outside the household, whether known or strangers. Perceived neighborhood safety and knowing neighbors are negatively related to harms from the drinking of others outside the household. In multivariate analyses for harms from household members and strangers, these findings are little affected by three individual factors related to harms from others' drinking: the respondent's gender, age group, and risky drinking status. Conclusions: Some economic and ecological factors play an important role in the occurrence of harm from others' drinking, but the relationship varies between factors and by the category of the other person involved. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 86, 601–610, 2025)

A new book explores why young people in high-income countries are drinking less, linking the decline to growing health consciousness, closer parental relationships, and a broader culture of caution. I...