Demographical, personality, alcohol use, and mental health characteristics associated with different alcoholic beverage preferences among students

Abstract

The study investigates correlates (i.e. demographics, personality, alcohol use and alcohol-related harm, alcohol expectancies, and mental health) of different alcoholic beverage preferences (i.e. beer/alcopops/cider, wine, and liquor/spirits). Data were collected by an online survey during fall 2016. Participants were invited to the survey based on participation in a former survey that was sent to students in Bergen, Norway, in fall 2015. The current sample consists of 5,217 participants. A multinomial regression analysis was conducted, where alcoholic beverage preferences comprised the dependent variable. Several correlates were associated with beverage preferences. For instance, being a woman and the personality trait conscientiousness were inversely related to a preference for beer/alcopops/cider while positively associated with a preference for wine. Preferences for wine or liquor/spirits were positively associated with depression and inversely related to anxiety. Conscientiousness as a personality trait might be a common factor in the relationship between wine preference and favourable health outcomes, and this trait should be controlled for in future studies. The current findings seem contrary to the assumed gender equality in Norway, where the strong association between sex and alcoholic beverage preferences suggests that traditional gender divisions prevail even in the current young and urban sample.