Stress, ethnic and distribution factors in a dichotomous response model of alcohol abuse.

An emerging methodology, the dichotomous response model, is applied to alcohol abuse. The model permits the systematic integration of events and factors from various theories of alcohol abuse as well as random influences to affect the outcome. Both the sociological and distribution of consumption hypotheses are drawn on to specify the factors influencing alcohol abuse. The empirical results based on data from Canada and the United States indicate that ethnic and stress factors strongly influence alcohol abuse. The stress variables include the rates of unemployment and divorce. The ethnic variables are the percentages of the population that are of African, French, Italian and Mexican ancestry. Distribution variables such as price, income and control measures were generally less important.