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Fat Words or Useful Concepts? Consensus and Variation in Conceptions of Problematic Drinking in Contemporary Sweden

Wallander, Lisa LU and Blomqvist, Jan (2019) In Contemporary Drug Problems 46(3). p.241-264
Abstract

The aim of this study was to bring to light the meanings attributed to four concepts denoting problematic drinking—“alcoholism,” “alcohol dependence,” “alcohol misuse,” and “risky drinking”—and to investigate whether individuals’ preferences for using these concepts vary depending on their demographic characteristics, their stakeholder group membership, and their own drinking habits. These questions were examined by means of a vignette experiment, in which Swedish social workers, health care staff, journalists, researchers, and the general public (n = 863) read a series of 10 randomly constructed fictitious cases (vignettes; n = 8,630) and made judgments about which of the four concepts best portrayed the case descriptions. Results... (More)

The aim of this study was to bring to light the meanings attributed to four concepts denoting problematic drinking—“alcoholism,” “alcohol dependence,” “alcohol misuse,” and “risky drinking”—and to investigate whether individuals’ preferences for using these concepts vary depending on their demographic characteristics, their stakeholder group membership, and their own drinking habits. These questions were examined by means of a vignette experiment, in which Swedish social workers, health care staff, journalists, researchers, and the general public (n = 863) read a series of 10 randomly constructed fictitious cases (vignettes; n = 8,630) and made judgments about which of the four concepts best portrayed the case descriptions. Results based on multilevel multinomial logistic regression showed that alcoholism was the concept chosen for the “heaviest” and most problematic drinking, whereas risky drinking was most often employed to describe moderate drinking habits that resulted in few negative consequences. The concepts alcohol misuse and alcohol dependence were positioned between alcoholism and risky drinking, and while misuse was linked to drinking large quantities and to more negative consequences, dependence was more frequently used to describe vignettes that involved depictions of craving. Moreover, the respondents’ conceptual choices were affected by their own gender, age, drinking habits, and stakeholder group membership. Taken together, the study’s findings reveal both consensus and variation in the respondents’ choice of concepts, indicating that while these concepts may to some extent be employed for making meaningful distinctions between different types of problematic drinking, there is substantial variation in the way the concepts are employed.

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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
concepts, factorial survey, judgments, problematic drinking, Sweden, vignettes
in
Contemporary Drug Problems
volume
46
issue
3
pages
24 pages
publisher
Federal Legal Publications Inc.
external identifiers
  • scopus:85067823377
ISSN
0091-4509
DOI
10.1177/0091450919852774
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a04bfdd1-54fb-4013-ade1-3b9cf916d72f
date added to LUP
2019-07-08 15:55:02
date last changed
2022-04-26 03:04:58
@article{a04bfdd1-54fb-4013-ade1-3b9cf916d72f,
  abstract     = {{<p>The aim of this study was to bring to light the meanings attributed to four concepts denoting problematic drinking—“alcoholism,” “alcohol dependence,” “alcohol misuse,” and “risky drinking”—and to investigate whether individuals’ preferences for using these concepts vary depending on their demographic characteristics, their stakeholder group membership, and their own drinking habits. These questions were examined by means of a vignette experiment, in which Swedish social workers, health care staff, journalists, researchers, and the general public (n = 863) read a series of 10 randomly constructed fictitious cases (vignettes; n = 8,630) and made judgments about which of the four concepts best portrayed the case descriptions. Results based on multilevel multinomial logistic regression showed that alcoholism was the concept chosen for the “heaviest” and most problematic drinking, whereas risky drinking was most often employed to describe moderate drinking habits that resulted in few negative consequences. The concepts alcohol misuse and alcohol dependence were positioned between alcoholism and risky drinking, and while misuse was linked to drinking large quantities and to more negative consequences, dependence was more frequently used to describe vignettes that involved depictions of craving. Moreover, the respondents’ conceptual choices were affected by their own gender, age, drinking habits, and stakeholder group membership. Taken together, the study’s findings reveal both consensus and variation in the respondents’ choice of concepts, indicating that while these concepts may to some extent be employed for making meaningful distinctions between different types of problematic drinking, there is substantial variation in the way the concepts are employed.</p>}},
  author       = {{Wallander, Lisa and Blomqvist, Jan}},
  issn         = {{0091-4509}},
  keywords     = {{concepts; factorial survey; judgments; problematic drinking; Sweden; vignettes}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{241--264}},
  publisher    = {{Federal Legal Publications Inc.}},
  series       = {{Contemporary Drug Problems}},
  title        = {{Fat Words or Useful Concepts? Consensus and Variation in Conceptions of Problematic Drinking in Contemporary Sweden}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0091450919852774}},
  doi          = {{10.1177/0091450919852774}},
  volume       = {{46}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}