'I have no interest in drinking': a cross-national comparison of reasons why men and women abstain from alcohol use

Abstract

Aims: To examine country differences in reasons for abstaining including the association of reasons with country abstaining rate and drinking pattern.

Participants: Samples of men and women from eight countries participating in the GENACIS (Gender Alcohol and Culture: an International Study) project.

Methods: Surveys were conducted with 3338 life-time abstainers and 3105 former drinkers. Respondents selected all applicable reasons for not drinking from a provided list. Analyses included two-level hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) regression.

Findings: Reasons for abstaining differed significantly for life-time abstainers compared to former drinkers, by gender and age, and by country-level abstaining rate and frequency of drinking. Life-time abstainers were more likely than former drinkers to endorse 'no interest', 'religion' and 'upbringing' and more reasons overall. Gender differences, especially among former drinkers, suggested that norms restricting drinking may influence reasons that women abstain ('no interest', 'not liking taste') while drinking experiences may be more important considerations for men ('afraid of alcohol problems', 'bad effect on activities'). Younger age was associated with normative reasons ('no interest', 'taste', 'waste of money') and possibly bad experiences ('afraid of problems'). Reasons such as 'religion', 'waste of money' and 'afraid of alcohol problems' were associated with higher country-level rates of abstaining. Higher endorsement of 'drinking is bad for health' and 'taste' were associated with a country pattern of less frequent drinking while 'not liking effects' was associated with higher drinking frequency.

Conclusions: Reasons for abstaining depend on type of abstainer, gender, age and country drinking norms and patterns.

Figure 1

Percent of lifetime abstainers who endorsed each item by country and by gender (country codes under bars indicate countries with proportions that are significantly different) Note: Countries with significant (chi-square p-value <.002) pairwise differences in endorsement rates are indicated by two letter country codes under the bar for each item; no superscript indicates a significant difference for both male and female respondents, ^F only female and ^M only male. *** p<.001, ** p<.01, and * p<.05 indicate that the endorsement rate is significantly higher (Chi-square test) for that gender of respondent compared to the endorsement rate for opposite gender respondents within the same country.

Figure 2

Percent of former drinkers who endorsed each item by country and by gender (country codes under bars indicate countries with proportions that are significantly different) ^aReasons asked separately for most but not all countries; therefore, combined in the present analyses for comparison purposes. Note: Countries with significant (chi-square p-value <.002) pairwise differences in endorsement rates are indicated by two letter country codes under the bar for each item; no superscript indicates a significant difference for both male and femalerespondents, ^F only female and ^M only male. *** p<.001, ** p<.01, and * p<.05 indicate that the endorsement rate is significantly higher (Chi-square test) for that gender of respondent compared to the endorsement rate for opposite gender respondents within the same country.