Drinking Patterns and Problems: A Search for Meaningful Interdisciplinary Studies

Abstract

This paper outlines an interdisciplinary framework for conducting research on drinking patterns and problems, reflecting a social-ecological perspective on person-environment interactions (Stokols, 1996). The sheer volume of existing alcohol research precludes a systematic and thorough review of all relevant sources. This paper presents a set of arguments about implicit disciplinary and methodological assumptions that have slowed the development of meaningful interdisciplinary approaches to research on drinking patterns and problems. The longer online version of the paper presents these arguments in detail and outlines basic elements of a conceptual framework for research that involves three central constructs studied at four levels of analysis and incorporating three distinct methodological perspectives. That version presents selected empirical studies and theoretical statements with reference to the coordinates provided by these dimensions. Problems in Formulating an Interdisciplinary Conceptual Framework Implicit Assumptions About Appropriate Levels of Analysis One prominent approach to the study of drinking patterns and problems emphasizes the occurrence, distribution, and determinants of alcohol use and its consequences in populations. This tradition imports collectivist assumptions from epidemiology and sociology by using national-, regional-, and community-level measures of drinking patterns and problems. Several traditions within this approach can be identified, each adopting its own measurement strategies for assessing drinking patterns and problems (Babor, 1990). For example, Grant (1993) distinguishes among three epidemiological perspectives on population-level drinking phenomena. From the perspective of psychiatric epidemiology, discrete or categorical measurement strategies are used to classify populations with