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An increasing non-drinker population is developing, but much research focusses on alcohol misuse, rather than the experiences of those who abstain or consume little alcohol, particularly within student populations. This student co-constructed qualitative research aimed to understand alcohol abstainer and light drinking students’ university experiences and perceptions of university alcohol cultures, given recent trends in alcohol drinking behaviour.

Ten UK undergraduate students (six males, four females; 21–26 years), five alcohol abstainers and five light alcohol drinkers (AUDIT-C), participated in semi-structured focus group interviews.

Thematic analysis of transcripts identified participants’ negative experiences of pre-university social pressures in navigating no or low alcohol drinking identities, which impacted university expectations. Participants perceived alcohol drinking cultures as remaining prevalent on university campuses and possibly used for profit and recruitment. Alcohol dominant university-sanctioned social events, alongside limited other provisions, impacted initial university transitions and belonging. However, students reported co-existing realities between such cultures and simultaneous peer acceptance of their no or low drinking status, finding similar others and long-term friendships not impacted. Due to this, student participants called for universities to take urgent action in changing pervasive university alcohol cultures, which they felt no longer aligned with changing student behaviours and perceptions.

Guided by findings, we provide important implications for prevention work and future research, including the importance of social context interventions. We also highlight the value of student co-creation and external partnerships within such work.

One of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals is to ensure the availability of improved drinking water for everyone. In this study, we examine the association between access to improved drinking water at the district level and child nutritional outcomes in Pakistan.

We employ district-level unbalanced panel data from Pakistan from various rounds of Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Surveys and Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys compiled by the Data4Pakistan, Pakistan District Development Portal. We examine the impact of the percentage of the population in a given district with access to clean drinking water on the percentage of stunted, underweight and wasted children in the district. The analysis proceeds in two steps. In the first step, we explore the spatial distribution of improved drinking water coverage and child development outcomes across districts. In the second step, we study their relationship by employing standard panel estimation methods and controlling for district characteristics.

The spatial analysis reveals the large disparity among districts and provinces in terms of improved drinking water coverage and child nutrition. The estimation results indicate that there is a significant association between the accessibility of improved drinking water and child development outcomes. The effect is significant for child stunting and underweight but not for child wasting. The impact appears to be stronger in rural districts. These findings are robust to alternate empirical strategies.

This is the first such study to examine the provision of improved drinking water at the district level in relation to child developmental outcomes in a developing country context.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2023-0739

This chapter begins with a brief history of the ways in which alcohol has been ingrained in American culture since the arrival of European settlers and their enslavement of African people. The chapter then addresses important aspects of alcohol and other drug use among college students. Because of the popularity of alcohol and cannabis among college students, they occupy the primary focus of the chapter, although other psychoactive drugs are briefly discussed as well. The chapter draws from data collected by the Healthy Minds Study, the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) and the American College Health Association (ACHA) in describing the prevalence of alcohol and cannabis use among college students, as well as trends in the use of both substances. The reasons college students drink and use cannabis are explored, as are the many consequences, including academic, legal, physical and interpersonal. The chapter examines a number of prevention strategies that colleges have used to minimize the negative consequences of substance use, including large-scale scare tactics, educational efforts and norming campaigns, as well as individually tailored programs; the effectiveness of each is reviewed.

College students report high levels of stress, with academic performance serving as a major contributor. The purpose of this study was to examine how drinking to cope with stressors related to student grade point average (i.e., GPA), while testing academic achievement orientations (i.e. mastery or performance) as possible moderators for this relationship.

In total, 325 undergraduate college students from a university in the Mountain West of the USA reported on GPA, daily drinking, coping and academic achievement orientations.

Drinking to cope negatively predicted GPA. Holding a mastery academic achievement orientation was related to higher GPA, whereas a performance academic achievement orientation was related to a more deleterious relationship between drinking to cope and GPA. However, neither orientation (i.e. mastery or performance) moderated the relationship between drinking to cope and GPA.

Regardless of academic achievement orientation, drinking to cope was negatively associated with GPA. The negative relationship between drinking to cope and GPA for those with a performance orientation may suggest that these students drink to cope with academic stressors. Importantly, students who choose to drink alcohol to cope with academic stress may paradoxically experience poorer academic performance. Future research should examine whether teaching a mastery orientation to college students can protect against the deleterious effects of drinking to cope on GPA.

This paper aims to investigate the cultural meanings of excessive drinking in three different countries with different levels of alcohol use chosen as case studies of wider geographies representing Northern (Denmark), Southern (Italy) and Eastern (Estonia) Europe.

Data were collected according to the Reception Analytical Group Interview method, using video clips as stimuli to enhance comparability. Eight online focus groups were organized in each country for a total number of 128 participants. Symbolic boundaries defining what drinking patterns are socially acceptable were then analysed to look at cross-national variations.

Results show how different conceptualizations of excessive drinking persist, although a convergence process among drinking patterns is also observed, which suggests that differences mainly depend on meanings and values attributed to intoxication. These are both rooted in the traditional drinking cultures and affected by ongoing social and economic change processes.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability, even at country level, as there are differences also within the same drinking culture; however, addressing these differences was beyond the scope of the present study, which aimed to contribute to understanding persisting differences in European drinking culture despite different drivers seem to act for globalization of drinking habits.

The paper includes implications for the development of tailored and effective prevention messages, considering rooted attitudes and cultural values attached to drinking and drunkenness in different European geographies, which are also related to conceptualizations of risks and pleasure.

This paper fulfils an identified need to understand persisting differences in alcohol-related behaviours and outcome in different European countries emerging from quantitative data.

Using data from 36,981 respondents to the Global Drug Survey (GDS) COVID-19 Special Edition, this study aims to compare changes, following the first “lockdown,” in alcohol consumption between lesbian, gay, bisexual and other sexual minority (LGB+) and heterosexual respondents with and without lifetime mental health and neurodevelopmental (MHND) conditions.

Characteristics and drinking behavior of respondents to GDS who disclosed their sexual orientation and past 30-day alcohol use were described and compared. LGB+ participants with and without MHND conditions were compared, and logistic regression models identified correlates of increased drinking among LGB+ people. The impact of changed drinking on the lives of LGB+ participants with and without MHND conditions was assessed.

LGB+ participants who reported that they were “not coping well at all” with the pandemic had twofold greater odds of reporting increased binge drinking. LGB+ participants with MHND conditions were significantly more likely than those without to report increased drinking frequency (18.7% vs 12.4%), quantity (13.8% vs 8.8%) and that changed drinking had impacted their lives.

This study, which has a uniquely large and international sample, explores aspects of alcohol use not considered in other COVID-19 alcohol use research with LGB+ people; and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore alcohol use among LGB+ people with MHND conditions.

This study aims to investigate the consumption pattern of aerated drinks and examine its determinants among adolescents’ boys and girls (15–19 years) in India.

The fifth round of National Family Health Survey (2019-2021) data was examined applying sample weights. Pattern of consumption and its determinants was analysed separately for boys and girls using binary logistic regression and calculating adjusted odds ratio (AOR) at 95% confidence interval.

The daily, weekly and occasionally consumption of aerated drinks was 4.4%, 22.7%, 63% for boys and 2.9%, 14%, 70.8% for girls, respectively. Factors such as secondary/higher education [Boys AOR = 1.5, (1.2–1.9) (p = 0.001); Girls AOR = 1.2, (1.1–1.2) (p < 0.001)]; rich wealth index [Boys AOR = 1.8, (1.6–2.1) (p < 0.001); Girls AOR = 1.3, (1.3–1.4) (p < 0.001)]; fried food consumption [Boys AOR = 11.1, (9.5–12.9) (p < 0.001); Girls AOR = 11.5, (10.8–12.3) (p < 0.001)]; and watching television [Boys AOR = 1.5, (2.3–1.7) (p < 0.001); Girls AOR = 1.3, (1.3–1.4) (p < 0.001)] were found significant predictors of aerated drink consumption among adolescents.

The authors noted differences in consumption pattern between adolescents’ boys and girls. A shift to occasional consumption from weekly and daily was also observed. A further decrease in consumption may requires gender and region-specific health-promotion interventions. Rationalising sugar-sweetened beverages taxation adhering World Health Organisation’s recommendation to reduce affordability may be further researched in the Indian context. Furthermore, sale and consumption of traditional and locally available fruits, vegetables and healthy beverages may be warranted.

Climate hazards in the form of cyclones are projected to become more intense under the pressures of future climate change. These changes represent a growing hazard to low lying coastal cities like Beira, Mozambique. In 2019, Beira experienced the devastating impact of Cyclone Idai. One of the many impacts resulting from this Cyclone was disrupted drinking water access. This investigation explores the distribution of Cyclone Idai’s impact on drinking water access via an environmental justice lens, exploring how preexisting water access characteristics may have predisposed households to the impacts of Cyclone Idai in Beria.

Relying on household survey data collected in Beira, the investigation applied a decision tree algorithm to investigate how drinking water disruption was distributed across the household survey sample using these preexisting vulnerabilities.

The investigation found that households that mainly relied upon piped water sources and experienced inconsistent access to water in the year prior to Cyclone Idai were more likely to experience disrupted drinking water access immediately after Cyclone Idai. The results indicate that residents in formal areas of Beira, largely reliant upon piped water supply, experienced higher rates of disrupted drinking water access following Cyclone Idai.

These findings question a commonly held assumption that informal areas are more vulnerable to climate hazards, like cyclones, than formal areas of a city. The findings support the inclusion of informal settlements in the design of climate change adaptation strategies.

This study explores the effects of parents' attending status and alcohol consumption (scenario based) on their feelings of happiness, relaxation, family cohesion and family satisfaction.

This study uses a 2 (attending status: with a child or without a child) X 3 (alcohol consumption: water, a cup of beer or four cups of beers) between-subjects experimental design on an art festival and employs relational cohesion theory while spillover theory.

The results reveal (1) significant differences between parents' attending status on happiness and relaxation; (2) significant differences between alcohol consumption on happiness, family cohesion, and family satisfaction and (3) happiness significantly mediates the effect of parents' alcohol consumption on family cohesion and family satisfaction.

Attending art festivals provides families with a chance to consolidate family relationships. Art festival planners could promote the festival through enhancing participants' family cohesion and satisfaction through potential family leisure activities.

Events are an emerging topic in the hospitality and tourism discipline in recent years. Social impacts, especially family-related outcomes, on art festivals are barely examined. Additionally, while alcohol consumption is common in festivals, the influence of alcohol consumption on the attendees' emotions and behaviors is under-researched.

In view of the increasing trend in food policies targeting the promotion of consumer interest in locally produced foods and growing developments in willingness-to-pay (WTP) methodologies, the authors investigate consumer preference for packaged traditional drink asaana.

The study used a simple random sample of 336 consumers to draw on perception index and contingent valuation methods to evaluate consumers' perceptions of the attributes of packaged asaana – a traditional maize-based beverage produced in Ghana (also known as Ghana Coca-Cola). A tobit regression model was employed to analyze consumers’ WTP for the product.

Analyzing the factors that influence consumers' WTP for packaged asaana using the tobit regression model, the study established the existence of positive health and nutrition, economic benefits and purchasing decision-making perceptions for asaana. While the results further showed that consumers are willing to pay a premium for well-packaged asaana, demographics such as age, income level, labeling, price of the product and savings were found to exert significant influence on consumers’ WTP for packaged asaana. Salient recommendations for food processors and relevant government agencies and food policy implications are identified.

Comprehending WTP provides valuable understanding regarding consumer qualms, actions and WTP for more secure traditional drinks and an examination of how the different factors that influence WTP for local beverages help boost local beverage production and guarantee employment.

Analyzing WTP data for traditional drinks reveals important implications for production, marketing and public health policies. Certification systems for traditional beverages may be beneficial, and the findings can be used to create public awareness campaigns about the safety of local drinks.

Assessing the WTP among Ghanaian consumers for traditional drinks, specifically asaana, is a ground-breaking study. The contingent evaluation (CE) and tobit regression approaches utilized in this research are strong, and the results obtained can guide decisions related to traditional drink production, marketing and the development of public health policies.