Article II examines the relationship between experiences of informal control from spouses and partners to influence one’s drinking and one’s own concern over drinking. The research asked whether the spouse’s control attempts and concern over one’s own drinking are in congruence and how the level of drinking, the frequency of drinking to intoxication and the estimate of the spouse’s level of drinking are related, and whether there were differences between the genders.
According to this research, there seems to be a strong relationship between drinking habits and being a target of informal drinking control. Especially frequent binge drinking is related to more efforts of drinking control from family members and friends. The typology used in article II is presented in Figure 1.
There seems to be a strong link between frequent binge drinking and having worries over one’s own drinking on the one hand, and being pressured by others on the other hand. Efforts from the spouse to control the respondent’s drinking were well in congruence with the reported level of annual alcohol consumption and with the frequency of drinking to intoxication. One’s own concern about drinking
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was clearly an indication of problems with one’s own drinking since the overall consumption level and number of intoxication days a year were much higher than for those who were not concerned about their own drinking. This was true especially for women. For men, control efforts from the spouse were more strongly related to the consumption level and the frequency of intoxication. The means of alcohol consumption a year in litres and intoxication days a year in different groups are presented in Table 4.
Gender seemed to be independently related to experiences of spouse’s pressuring to drink less. More men than women had experienced control from the spouse, even when the drinking level was taken into account. It seems that in the Finnish culture women more often than men are not pressured by their spouses to drink less, even when they drink heavily and are themselves concerned about their drinking.
Most of the respondents were in the group where no control attempts from the spouse or concern over own drinking was experienced. In this group both men and women consumed less alcohol and had less intoxication days a year than respondents in the other groups. Their spouses did not drink much either. It seems that drinking habits are related to experiences of drinking control from the spouse and to concerns over own drinking in this group.
Men more often than women had experienced that their spouse had tried to influence the drinker to drink less and at the same time were also concerned about their own drinking habits. Men who had felt that only their spouse had controlled their drinking but who were personally not concerned about it drank a lot but not very often to intoxication. Their spouses typically drank very little. This
Informal control
Own concerns
Yes No
Yes
1
Informal control from the spouse to drink less,
and concerns over own drinking
2
Informal control from the spouse to drink less,
no concerns over own drinking
No
Concerns over own drinking, no informal control from the spouse
4
No informal control to drink less from the
spouse, no concerns over own drinking
FIGuRE 1. Typology of relationships between concerns about one’s own drinking and the external control from the spouse to drink less
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might indicate that men do not consider frequent alcohol use in small amounts (‘South-European drinking habits’) as very harmful and are not concerned about it. However, their wives are concerned and try to control the husband’s drinking, maybe by appealing to health effects. Only when the drinking gets so heavy that there are also a lot of intoxication days in addition to a high overall volume of drinking do men get concerned over their own drinking, and so agree with their wives.
There were a lot more women who had experienced concern about their own drinking but whose spouse had not attempted to control it than there were women who had experienced both control and own concerns. However, women in both of these groups used alcohol in the same way; that is, drinking a lot and quite often to intoxication. Also the spouses of these women drank quite heavily. This indicates that a large proportion of women who drink heavily and are concerned about it do not get any support in drinking control from their spouse. A high frequency of intoxication days, but also high overall volume of drinking is related to women’s concerns over their own drinking. Women who feel that their drinking is controlled by their spouse but who are not concerned about it, drink relatively little, as do their spouses. Here, a spouse’s control attempts are maybe related to something else, such as moral concerns, than to the wife’s drinking per se.
TAblE 4. The respondent’s and his / her spouse’s estimated alcohol consumption and age according to categories of informal control to drink less and own concern about drinking (current drinkers only, n = 1 337)
Informal control and own concern
% (n)
Only informal control
% (n)
Only concern about own
drinking
% (n)
No informal control, no concern about
own drinking
% (n)
Statistical significance
men 14 () (21) 2 (12) () .2 () p < .0001 1
women 2 (12) 1 () 22 (14) (4)
Alcohol consumption a year in litres (mean)
men 10.1 .0 . . 1.4 () p < .00012
women 4. 2.4 4.0 1.4 1.4 () p < .00012
Intoxication days a year (mean)
men 21 12 1.0 () p < .00012
women 4 1 1. () p < .00012
Age (mean)
men 41 41 44 12.4 () p = .002
women 0 4 1. () p < .0001
1 Chi-square test.
2 Kruskal-Wallis’s test.
3 One-wayANOVA.
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The respondents in the group who reported only pressuring from the spouse but no concern for themselves were younger than in the other groups. The highest mean age was found in the group where no concern or control was experienced (Table 4). This is probably related to different drinking habits in different age groups. Young people drink more and maybe others pay attention to it even though they are not yet concerned themselves. On the other hand, older people drink less and thus there is no reason for concern or control.
When treatment or prevention is aimed at including the individual’s family and social networks, the gender-specificity of these phenomena should perhaps be recognized. Better understanding of the role of the spouse in how people regulate their own drinking can be useful when designing help or information for heavy or risky drinkers and their families. The informal control of drinking can also be interpreted as social support as it aims at limiting the other one’s drinking and at the same time harms related to it. In this research it seemed that women do not get social support from their spouses if they drink heavily as much as drinking men do from their wives.