Written by international leaders in the field of alcoholism, this book provides an interdisciplinary source of information on alcoholism that links together science, policy, and public health in order to emphasise the importance of scientific knowledge with deciding public health policy.

Alcohol use by young people is extremely dangerous - both to themselves and society at large. Underage alcohol use is associated with traffic fatalities, violence, unsafe sex, suicide, educational failure, and other problem behaviors that diminish the prospects of future success, as well as health risks â€" and the earlier teens start drinking, the greater the danger. Despite these serious concerns, the media continues to make drinking look attractive to youth, and it remains possible and even easy for teenagers to get access to alcohol. Why is this dangerous behavior so pervasive? What can be done to prevent it? What will work and who is responsible for making sure it happens? Reducing Underage Drinking addresses these questions and proposes a new way to combat underage alcohol use. It explores the ways in which may different individuals and groups contribute to the problem and how they can be enlisted to prevent it. Reducing Underage Drinking will serve as both a game plan and a call to arms for anyone with an investment in youth health and safety.

Given the long standing gender differences in regard to alcohol-related behaviors and consequences, understanding how conformity to gender norms may predict alcoholrelated outcomes is an important next step in developing effective prevention efforts aimed at reducing alcohol-related sexual consequences for college women. The current study examined the relationships among conformity to feminine and masculine gender norms and alcohol-related outcomes (harmful drinking patterns, protective behavior strategy use, and sex-related consequences) among college women. Another primary aim of the study was to determine the extent to which sex-specific alcohol expectancies mediated the associations between gender norms and alcohol-related outcomes. Participants were 421 undergraduate college women who indicated that they had consumed alcohol at least once during the thirty days prior to completing the study measures, and who were between the ages of 18 and 25. Conformity to feminine norms was not directly predictive of any of the alcohol-related outcomes, while conformity to masculine norms was only associated with greater alcohol-related risky sexual behavior. Only sexual enhancement alcohol expectancies emerged as a mediator of the gender norms--alcohol-related outcomes link. Clinical and research implications are discussed. --Page ii.

"The link between alcohol use and sexual behaviour has serious implications for the health of populations due to the advent of HIV infection. WHO coordinated a multi-country study to identify factors related to risky sexual behaviour among alcohol users in diverse cultural settings. The countries involved included: Belarus, India, Mexico, Kenya, Romania, the Russian Federation, South Africa and Zambia."--Back cover.

This book is the product of a multinational research project on "Gender, Alcohol and Culture: an International Study" (GENACIS). GENACIS is a major collaborative effort to highlight the relationship between gender and alcohol issues, seek greater understanding of male and female differences in patterns of drinking and alcohol problems, and assess the public health implications of drinking by men and women. Each of the eight country-specific chapters in this volume (Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Uganda) consists of a review of alcohol and alcohol policy in the country and an analysis of social and health problems associated with drinking. For several of the countries, this is the first systematic attempt to provide a broad insight into gender issues and how they relate to alcohol problems. In an era of growing consumption and increasing burden of alcohol-related problems in many developing countries, the findings reported in this book and the GENACIS project in general, are a major step forward in the understanding of the role of gender in alcohol behaviours.