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Executive Summary
The 2004
Scottish Social Attitudes Survey (
SSA) included a module of questions
designed to provide a deeper understanding of attitudes
towards drinking and passive smoking in Scotland. The
SSA involves 1,600 interviews with
Scottish adults each year, with respondents selected using
random probability sampling in order to provide results
that are robust and representative of the Scottish
population. It aims to improve understanding of public
opinion and to track changes in public opinion over time in
order to inform policy making in Scotland.
The 2004 drinking and smoking module explored attitudes
towards the role of alcohol in Scottish culture,
differences in attitudes towards chronic and binge
drinking, perceptions of the impact of alcohol on health,
views on alcohol and crime and on underage drinking, and
attitudes towards current legislative proposals to control
the sale and purchase of alcohol and to ban smoking in
public places. If these questions are repeated in future
sweeps of the
SSA, it will be possible to assess the
effectiveness of current strategies to achieve a cultural
shift in attitudes towards drinking and to track changes in
public opinion on legislative proposals on smoking and
drinking once these proposals are implemented.
Alcohol and Scottish culture
- Alcohol misuse is widely perceived as a problem for
Scotland. Forty-six per cent of respondents thought
that alcohol caused more harm than other drugs to
Scotland as a whole, and there was little variation in
this view by gender, age or rurality.
- At the same time as it is viewed as a problem,
alcohol is seen as a central part of Scottish culture -
64% agree that 'Drinking is a major part of the
Scottish way of life'.
- Men are more likely than women to view alcohol as a
'social lubricant' - 47% of men compared with 27% of
women agree or strongly agree that 'It's easier to
enjoy a social event if you've had a drink'.
Alcohol, stigma and social
acceptability
- Getting drunk and binge drinking attract more
stigma than acceptance among the population as a whole
- just 18% agree that 'Getting drunk at the weekends is
a perfectly acceptable thing to do', while 83% think
someone who binge drinks has a very or fairly serious
problem.
- However, 18-24 year-olds hold a more permissive
attitude towards getting drunk in general and binge
drinking in particular. Fifty-seven per cent of 18-24
years olds agree that getting drunk at the weekends is
acceptable, compared with 30% of 25-39 year-olds and 8%
of 40-64 year-olds. They are less likely to view binge
drinking as a serious problem or as something to be
embarrassed about.
- Men also tend to hold more permissive attitudes
than women towards getting drunk and binge
drinking.
- People in Scotland are divided over whether problem
drinkers can be held 'morally responsible' for their
own situation. While 34% agree or strongly agree that
people with drinking problems have only themselves to
blame, 40% disagree.
- There is some stigma (or a perception of stigma)
attached to
not drinking in Scotland. Thirty-four per cent
of current drinkers agree that other people would think
it odd if they stopped drinking altogether, while 42%
of tee-totallers agree that other people do view their
not drinking as odd.
- The majority of people in Scotland think that
drinking alcohol should probably or definitely
not be allowed in public parks (82%), football
matches (83%), in the street (90%) and on trains
(76%).
Alcohol and health
- Alcohol and tobacco are not seen as causing as much
harm to individual frequent users as heroin or crack
cocaine. After cannabis, they are the drugs most people
think cause least harm to users.
- Respondents were asked their views of a
hypothetical binge drinker and a hypothetical chronic
drinker. A majority of people thought that both the
binge drinker and the chronic drinker were very or
fairly like to seriously damage their long-term health.
However, people were much more likely to think the
chronic drinker was
very likely to damage their long-term health
compared with the binge drinker (94% compared with
43%).
- Younger people, aged 18-24, were much less likely
than older people to think binge drinking will have
serious long-term health effects - 69% of 18-24
year-olds thought the hypothetical binge drinker was
very or fairly likely to damage their long-term health,
compared with 94% of those aged 65 and over.
- Chronic drinking appears to be viewed within a
'medical model' of alcoholism, as an illness which
requires professional help, while binge drinking
appears to be viewed more as a 'social problem'. This
suggestion is supported by the fact that the most
commonly suggested source of help for the chronic
drinker was a doctor or
GP, while for the binge drinker it
was family and friends.
- Most people (74%) think it would be very or fairly
easy for someone with a drink problem to find help in
the respondent's local area, though respondents in the
most deprived areas of Scotland were somewhat less
likely to say this.
Alcohol and crime
- The vast majority of people in Scotland (88%) do
not think that whether a person is drunk or sober
should affect the punishment they receive for
vandalising a car, suggesting that people do not think
alcohol consumption should be seen as either a
mitigating or an aggravating factor in determining
punishments for crime.
Alcohol and young people
- Attitudes towards underage drinking vary depending
on the
context and the
age of the young drinker. People are most
likely to disapprove of underage drinkers in pubs (61%
think it is always or mostly wrong for a 17 year-old to
drink in a pub with friends) and least likely to
disapprove of older teenagers drinking small amounts at
home with their parents (just 16% thought it was always
or mostly wrong for a 17 year-old to drink in this
situation).
- Disapproval of younger teenagers drinking is
relatively high, even when this involves small amounts
in a 'safe' (and legal) situation - 42% thought it was
always or mostly wrong for a 14 year-old to drink a
small amount at home with their parents, even if they
do not get drunk.
- There is relatively strong support (particularly
among 18-24 year-olds) for a 'no proof, no sale' policy
to tackle underage drinking (31% thought this was the
measure most likely to be effective), but very little
support for action to punish parents of underage
drinkers (32% thought this was the measure least likely
to be effective).
Controlling the sale and purchase of
alcohol
- When the survey was conducted in late 2004, there
were relatively low levels of support for banning
'irresponsible' drinks promotions like happy hours and
two-for-one offers - just 21% favoured an outright ban.
However, a further 37% thought these types of offers
should be restricted, suggesting there is majority
support for some action on cheap drinks
promotions.
- People are more likely to think that longer pub
opening hours will encourage people to drink more
heavily (54%) than to think people will pace their
drinking more sensibly (36%).
- There appears to be little support for increasing
taxes on alcohol to encourage more sensible
drinking.
Second-hand smoke
- Restaurants, pub and bars are the locations where
most people in Scotland are regularly exposed to
second-hand tobacco smoke. Thirty-six per cent said
they were regularly exposed to other people's smoke in
restaurants and 55% that they were regularly exposed to
second-hand smoke in pubs and bars (compared with 16%
at work, 18% in their own home and 25% in other
people's homes).
- Thirty-nine per cent of respondents avoid pubs and
bars and 46% avoid restaurants at least sometimes
because of other people's smoke.
- People were more likely to support a complete ban
on smoking in restaurants compared with pubs and bars
(53% compared with 25%). However, even among smokers,
who were the group least likely to support an outright
ban, there was majority support for some action to
restrict smoking in pubs and bars.
- Support for a complete ban on smoking in pubs and
bars was much higher among employers, managers and
professionals (34%) compared with those in routine and
semi-routine occupations (17%), suggesting class is a
key factor associated with support for a ban.
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