Evaluation of alcohol consumption in Mexican adolescents: an approach from behavioral economics
Main Article Content
Abstract
Introduction: the impact of programs to prevent alcohol consumption in adolescents can be increased by incorporating an environmental component. This paper explores the usefulness of behavioral economics to analyze the preference for the substance as a function of environmental variables.
Objective: to evaluate the level of alcohol consumption in a group of Mexican adolescents, as a function of sex, age, access to consumption and reinforcement derived from substance-free activities.
Method: a total of 7,569 high school students participated: 51% were male and 49% female. A multiple linear regression model was used to evaluate how the selected variables are related to the level of alcohol consumption. Results: the regression model was adjusted (F = 202.423, p < 0.01) and explained 33.6% of the variance (R2 = 0.336). Gender (being male), age, and access to consumption in social contexts were positively associated with the level of alcohol consumption. Academic, prosocial and cultural activities were negatively related to alcohol consumption; while the use of electronic media, social, physical and recreational activities had a positive relationship.
Discussion and conclusions: tit is necessary to reduce access to alcohol consumption, both commercially, and in social and family contexts. Preventive interventions should promote the involvement of adolescents in activities incompatible with consumption and incorporate a social component to increase their level of reinforcement.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
References
Acuff, S. F., Soltis, K. E., Dennhardt, A. A., Berlin, K. S., & Murphy, J. G. (2018). Evaluating behavioral economic models of heavy drinking among college students. Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 42(7), 1304-1314. doi: 10.1111/acer.13774
Alanís, S. (2019). Uso de alcohol en adolescentes: acceso a la sustancia y disponibilidad de actividades alternativas [Tesis de doctorado publicada]. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Amlung, M. T., Acker, J., Stojek, M. K., Murphy, J. G., & MacKillop, J. (2012). Is talk ‘‘cheap’’? An initial investigation of the equivalence of alcohol purchase task performance for hypothetical and actual rewards. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 36(4), 716-724. doi: 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2011.01656.x
Babor, T., Caetano, R., Casswell, S., Edwards, G., Giesbrecht, N., Graham., K., Grube, J., Hill, L., Holder, H., Homel, R., Livingston, M., Österberg, E., Rehm, J., Room, R., & Rosow, I. (2010). El alcohol: un producto de consumo no ordinario. Investigación y políticas públicas. (2.a ed.). Organización Panamericana de la Salud.
Bickel, W. K. & Marsch, L. A. (2001). Toward a behavioral economic understanding of drug dependence: Delay discounting processes. Addiction, 96, 73-86. doi: 10.1046/j.1360-0443.2001.961736.x
Borges, G., Benjet, C., Medina-Mora, M. E., Orozco, R., & Wang, P. S. (2008). Treatment of mental disorders for adolescents in Mexico City. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 86(10), 757-764.
Borges, G., Orozco, R., Benjet, C., & Medina-Mora, M. E. (2010). Suicidio y conductas suicidas en México: retrospectiva y situación actual. Salud Pública de México, 52(4), 292-304.
Centros de Integración Juvenil. (2013). Estudio Básico de Comunidad Objetivo, 2013. CIJ, Dirección de Investigación y Enseñanza, Subdirección de Investigación.
Correia, C. J., Benson, T. A., & Carey, K. B. (2005). Decreased substance use following increases in alternative behaviors: a preliminary investigation. Addictive Behaviors, 30, 29-27. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2004.04.006
Correia, C. J., Carey, K. B., & Borsari, B. (2002). Measuring substance-free and substance-related reinforcement in the natural environment. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 16, 28-34.
Correia, C. J., Murphy, J. G., Irons, J. G., & Vasi, A. E. (2010). The behavioral economics of substance use: research on the relationship between substance use and alternative reinforcers. Journal of Behavioral Health and Medicine, 3, 216-237. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2016.04.022
Correia, C. J., Simons, J., Carey, K. B., & Borsari, B. E. (1998). Predicting drug use: application of behavioral theories of choice. Addictive Behaviors, 23, 705-709. doi: 10.1016/S0306-4603(98)00027-6
Cuijpers, P. (2003). Three decades of drug prevention research. Drugs: education, prevention and policy, 10(1), 7-20. doi: 10.1080/0968763021000018900
DeGrandpre, R. J., Bickel, W. K., Hughes, J. R., Layng, M. P., & Badger, G. (1993). Unit price as a useful metric in analyzing effects of reinforcer magnitude. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 60, 641-666. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1993.60-641
Foxcroft, D. R. & Tsertsvadze, A. (2011). Universal school-based prevention programs for alcohol misuse in young people. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 5, CD009113. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD009113.
Goldstein, A. L., Wall, A. M., Wekerle, C., & Krank, M. (2014). The impact of perceived reinforcement from alcohol and involvement in leisure activities on adolescent alcohol use. Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse, 22, 340-363. doi: 10.1080/1067828X.2012.735190
Gómez, E. L., Gómez, H. L., Morales, B., & Pérez, M. (2009). Uso del AUDIT y el DAST-10 para la identificación de abuso de sustancias psicoactivas y alcohol en adolescentes. Revista Colombiana de Psicología, 18(1), 9- 17.
Guerrero, C. M., Muños, J. A., Sáenz, B., Pérez, R., & Reynales, L. M. (2013). Impacto del consumo nocivo de alcohol en accidentes y enfermedades crónicas en México. Salud Pública de México, 55(2), 282-288.
Hernández, O., Espada, J. P., & Guillén, A. (2016). Relación entre conducta prosocial, resolución de problemas y consumo de drogas en adolescentes. Anales de Psicología, 32(2), 609-616. doi: 10.6018/analesps.32.2.204941
Higgins, S. T., Heil, S. H., & Lussier, J. P. (2004). Clinical implications of reinforcement as a determinant of substance use disorders. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 431-461. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.142033
Hursh, S. R., Galuska, C. M., Winger, G., & Woods, J. H. (2005). The economics of drug abuse: a quantitative assessment of drug demand. Molecular Interventions, 5, 20-28. doi: 10.1124/mi.5.1.6
Joyner, K. J., Pickover, A. M., Soltis, K. E., Dennhardt, A. A., Martens, M. P., & Murphy, J. G. (2016). Deficits in access to reward are associated with college student alcohol use disorder. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 40(12), 2685-2691. doi: 10.1111/acer.13255
Medina-Mora, M. E., García, I., Cortina, D., Orozco, R., Robles, R., Vázquez, L. Real, T., & Chisholm, D. (2010). Estudio de costo-efectividad de intervenciones para prevenir el abuso de alcohol en México. Salud Mental, 33(5), 373-378.
Murphy, J. G. & Dennhardt, A. A. (2016) The behavioral economics of young adult substance abuse. Preventive Medicine 92, 24-30. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2016.04.022
Murphy, J. G., Correia, C. J., & Barnett, N. P. (2007). Behavioral economic approaches to reduce college student drinking. Addictive Behaviors, 32, 2573-2585. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2007.05.015
Rojas, E, Fleiz, C., Medina-Mora, M. E., Moron, M. A., & Domenech, M. (1999). Consumo de alcohol y drogas en estudiantes de Pachuca, Hidalgo. Salud Pública de México, 41, 297-308.
Saunders, J. B., Aasland, O. G., Babor, T. F., de la Fuente, J. R., & Grant, M. (1993). Development of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT): WHO collaborative project on early detection of persons with harmful alcohol consumption. II. Addiction, 88, 791-804. doi: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.1993.tb02093.x
Skidmore, J. R. & Murphy, J. G. (2010). Relations between heavy drinking, gender, and substance-free reinforcement. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 18(2), 158-166. doi: 10.1037/a0018513
Soltis, K. E., McDevitt-Murphy, M. E., & Murphy, J. G. (2017). Alcohol demand, future orientation, and craving mediate the relation between depressive and stress symptoms and alcohol problems. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 41, 1191-1200. doi: 10.1111/acer.13395
Stockings, E., Hall, W. D., Lynskey, M., Morley, K. I., Reavley, N., Strang, J., Patton, G., & Degenhardt, L. (2016). Prevention, early intervention, harm reduction, and treatment of substance use in young people. Lancet Psychiatry, 3(3) ,280-296. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(16)00002-X
Vancampfort, D., De Hert, M., Stubbs, B., Soundy, A., De Herdt, A., Detraux, J., & Probst, M. (2015). A systematic review of physical activity correlates in alcohol use disorders. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing 29(4), 196- 201. doi: 10.1016/j.apnu.2014.08.006
Villatoro, J. A., Fregoso., D., Bustos, M., Oliva, N., Mujica, A., Martín del Campo, R., Nanni, R., Medina-Mora, M. E. (2015). Encuesta Nacional de Consumo de Drogas en Estudiantes 2014. Reporte de alcohol. Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz, Comisión Nacional Contra las Adicciones, Secretaría de Salud, INPRFM.
Villatoro, J. A., Reséndiz, E., Mujica, A., Bretón M., Cañas, V., Soto, I., Fregoso, D., Fleiz, C., Medina, M. E., Gutiérrez, J., Franco, A., Romero, M. & Mendoza, L. (2017). Encuesta Nacional de Consumo de Drogas, Alcohol y Tabaco 2016-2017: Reporte de alcohol. Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Comisión Nacional Contra las Adicciones, Secretaría de Salud.
Vuchinich, R. E, & Tucker, J. A. (1988). Contributions from behavioral theories of choice to an analysis of alcohol abuse. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 97, 181-195.
Vuchinich, R. E. & Heather, N. (2003). Choice, behavioural economics, and addiction. Oxford, U.K: Pergamon.
Wichstrøm, T. & Wichstrøm, L. (2009). Does sports participation during adolescence prevent later alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use? Addiction, 104, 138-149. doi: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2008.02422.x
World Health Organization. (2014). Global status report on alcohol and health 2014. WHO Press: Switzerland.