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The study explores how differences in rural community contexts relate to early adolescent alcohol use. Data were gathered from 1,424 adolescents in the sixth through eighth grades in 22 rural Northern Plains communities, as well as 790 adults, parents, teachers, and community leaders. Multilevel modeling analyses revealed that community supportiveness, as perceived by adolescents, but not adults, was associated with less lifetime and past month alcohol use, and for past month use, this relationship was stronger than perceived peer drinking or parental closeness. Perceived peer drinking and parental closeness were not associated with past month use. Adolescents experiencing family economic strain did not report greater lifetime or past month use, but living in a disadvantaged community was associated with greater past month use. Relatively affluent adolescents reported greater past month use when living in a poor community than did poorer adolescents, highlighting relationship complexity between economic disadvantage and alcohol use. (Contains 3 tables.)

Background: Although rural adolescents use of alcohol is at some of the highest rates nationally, rural adolescent alcohol use has not been studied extensively. This study examines how community attitudes and behaviors are related to adolescent drinking in rural environments. Methods: Data were gathered in 22 rural communities in the Upper Midwest (North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming). Surveys were collected from 1424 rural sixth- to eighth-grade adolescents and 790 adults, including parents, teachers, and community leaders. Census data were also collected. Results: Drinkers differed from nondrinkers by the following factors: higher perceptions of peer, parental, and overall community drinking, as well as lower levels of parental closeness and religiosity. Factors distinguishing binge and nonbinge drinkers were increased drinking to reduce stress, drinking to fit in, perceptions of peer drinking, and perceived lack of alternatives to drinking. Parents were significantly less likely to perceive adolescent alcohol use as a problem than other community adults; school officials were most likely to perceive it as a problem. Parental perceptions were also the least correlated to actual adolescent use, while adolescent perceptions were the most highly correlated. Conclusions: Community factors such as overall prevalence of drinking, community support, and controls against drinking are important predictors of reported use in early adolescence. School officials were more likely to view adolescent alcohol use as a problem than were parents. School officials' perceptions of adolescent use were also more related to actual adolescent use than were parental perceptions of adolescent use. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.)

The study examines alcohol-related attitudes among adolescents and adults in a high consumption community, exploring whether adolescents and adults hold similar or different views regarding adolescent drinking. Data were gathered from adults in a Midwestern city via random telephone survey of 487 adults (30% with children under the age of 21). Students in grades 6-12 (n = 558) also completed a youth version of the survey in classrooms. Results indicated that becoming a parent was associated with more restrictive attitudes about adolescent alcohol use, regardless of the age of their children. Adolescents aged 14 to 17 had the least restrictive attitudes. Adults aged 18 to 24 (who were not parents) reported values similar to older adolescents. Younger adolescents, while similar to older adolescents in perception of community alcohol problems, were more like parents and older adults in attitudes about adolescent drinking. Both adolescents and adults greatly overestimated actual amounts of community adolescent binge drinking.