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Rachel Ormston & Catriona Webster
Scottish Centre for Social Research

ISBN 978 0 7559 7190 9 (Web only publication)

This document is also available in pdf format (720k)

CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction
Perceptions of the role of alcohol in Scottish culture
Attitudes towards different kinds of alcohol misuse
Knowledge and awareness of alcohol content and sensible drinking guidelines

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Research and policy context
Research aims
The data
Structure of the report

CHAPTER TWO: PERCEPTIONS OF THE ROLE OF ALCOHOL IN SCOTTISH CULTURE
Introduction
The social context of drinking in Scotland
A Scottish drinking culture?
Does Scotland have a drink problem?
A shared problem?
A social lubricant?
Views of the role of alcohol among different groups in Scotland

CHAPTER THREE: ATTITUDES TOWARDS DIFFERENT KINDS OF ALCOHOL MISUSE
Introduction
Defining 'alcohol misuse'
Use and measurement of 'chronic', 'binge' and 'hazardous' drinking in this report
Are different patterns of drinking viewed differently?
Attitudes to 'getting drunk'
Changes in attitudes to different types of drinking since 2004
How do attitudes to different drinking patterns vary between different groups in Scotland?

CHAPTER FOUR: KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS OF ALCOHOL CONTENT AND SENSIBLE DRINKING GUIDELINES
Introduction
Awareness of units
Awareness of government advice on daily limits
Factors associated with correctly identifying units in drinks
Factors associated with correctly identifying daily limits
Key points

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS
What are public attitudes towards the role of alcohol in Scottish culture?
What are public perceptions of the harm caused by different patterns of drinking?
How well informed are the Scottish public about safe drinking limits and the alcohol content of different drinks?

REFERENCES

ANNEX A: TOPLINE TABLES

ANNEX B: TECHNICAL DETAILS OF THE SURVEY
The Scottish Social Attitudes series
The 2007 survey
Response rates
Sample design
Weighting
Fieldwork
Analysis variables
Analysis techniques - logistic regression
Regression models

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Where people usually drink by age (% of respondents who ever drink)
Table 2.2 Who people usually drink with by age (% of respondents who ever drink)
Table 2.3 Which drug causes the most and least problems for Scotland as a whole? 2007 (%)
Table 2.4 Drug which causes most/least problems/harm to Scotland as a whole and individual frequent users - 2007 (%)
Table 3.1 Who would advise drinker to go to first if wanted help (%)
Table 4.1 Correctly identifying units of alcohol in a pint of normal strength beer and single pub measure of spirits, by age, 2007 (cell %)

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Frequency of drinking alcohol by sex (%)
Figure 2.2 'Drinking is a major part of the Scottish way of life', 2004 & 2007 (%)
Figure 2.3 Agreement with statements comparing adult drinkers in Scotland with those in the rest of the UK (2007) and other parts of Europe (2004) (%)
Figure 2.4 'The amount of alcohol people in Scotland drink is something we should all be ashamed of' 2007 (%)
Figure 2.5 'Most people with serious drinking problems have only themselves to blame' (2004 & 2007) (%)
Figure 2.6 'I would feel partly responsible if a friend I was with got drunk and ended up in trouble' (2007) (%)
Figure 2.7 Attitudes to alcohol tax increases (2004) and price increases (2007) (%)
Figure 2.8 Attitudes to alcohol as a 'social lubricant', 2007 (%)
Figure 2.9 Attitudes to non-drinking, 2007 (%)
Figure 2.10 Attitudes to alcohol by frequency of drinking (%)
Figure 3.1 How serious a problem would you consider their drinking to be? (%)
Figure 3.2 How likely is drinking behaviour to seriously damage health if continued long-term? (%)
Figure 3.3 Agree/disagree drinker should be embarrassed about their drinking? (%)
Figure 3.4 Agree/disagree 'Getting drunk is a perfectly acceptable thing to do at weekends' 2004 & 2007 (%)
Figure 3.5 Agree/disagree 'There's nothing wrong with people my age getting drunk regularly' 2004 & 2007 (%)
Figure 3.6 Agree/agree strongly with statements about getting drunk by age, 2007 (%)
Figure 3.7 How serious a problem 'binge drinker' has, by sex of drinker, 2007 (%)
Figure 3.8 Agree/agree strongly with statements about getting drunk by frequency of drinking (%)
Figure 4.1 Belief about number of units in a pint of normal strength beer (%)
Figure 4.2 Belief about number of units in a single pub measure of spirits (%)
Figure 4.3 Belief about number of units in a normal bottle of wine (%)
Figure 4.4 Awareness of recommended daily limit for men (%)
Figure 4.5 Awareness of recommended daily limit for women (%)
Figure 4.6 Percentage correctly identifying the number of units in beer and wine, by sex (%)
Figure 4.7 Percentage correctly identifying the number of units in beer, spirits and wine, by income (%)
Figure 4.8 Percentage correctly identifying the number of units in beer, spirits and wine, by frequency of drinking (%)
Figure 4.9 Percentage correctly identifying the daily limits for women and men, by age (%)
Figure 4.10 Percentage correctly identifying recommended daily limits for men and women, by education (%)
Figure 4.11 Percentage correctly identifying the daily limits for women and men, by frequency of drinking, 2007

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, the authors of the report would like to thank all the respondents who gave up their time to take part in the survey - we hope that one day some of them might come across this report and read about their views with interest.

The Scottish Social Attitudes survey is very much a collaborative venture. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our colleagues in NatCen's operations and computing departments, to Ann Mair at the Social Statistics Laboratory at Strathclyde University, and to our team of interviewers and supervisors for conducting the interviews with such dedication and professionalism.

We would like to thank Iain MacAllister of Scottish Government Social Research for his input into the questionnaire design and for his advice and support during reporting. Thanks are also due to Catherine Bromley (ScotCen) and Nick Clater (City of Edinburgh Social Work Department) for their work on the design of the first Scottish Social Attitudes survey alcohol module in 2004, from which many of the questions in the 2007 survey were drawn.

Responsibility for the opinions expressed in this report, and for all interpretation of the data, lies solely with the authors.

The views expressed in this report are those of the researcher and
do not necessarily represent those of the Department or Scottish Ministers.

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