Comment on "A national study of adolescent drinking behavior, attitudes and correlates".

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Abstract
The study was conducted in Apr. and May 1974, the time of year when drinking situations are most numerous among high school youth. The researchers assumed that beer contained 4% alcohol, wine 15% and distilled spirits 45%; these estimates are too high and tend to exaggerate the respondents'' alcohol consumption. The quantities in a drink of an alcoholic beverage were not defined for the respondents, and therefore the consumption estimates are imprecise. The measures of alcohol that determined the 3 categories of drinkers are not given reasonably precise definitions. The body weights of the respondents and the time over which drinking took place were disregarded, which makes the assumed levels and frequencies of intoxication inaccurate. The definition of problem drinker used in the study was inappropriate and the terms drunk and high were never defined for the respondents with the result that many respondents were mislabeled problem drinkers. Because of methodological and conceptual weaknesses the study cannot indicate the prevalence of problem drinking among adolescents in the USA.

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