The relationships between alcohol source, autonomy in brand selection, and brand preference among youth in the USA.

Aims: We aimed to describe the sources from which youth in the USA commonly obtain alcohol, their role in selecting the brands they drink and the relationship of these variables to their indicated alcohol brand preferences.
Methods: We recruited 1031 underage drinkers in the age range of 13-20 through an internet panel managed by Knowledge Networks. Respondents completed an online survey assessing their recent brand-specific alcohol use, the source of their most recently consumed alcohol and whether the respondent or another person selected the brand they drank.
Results: Alcohol sources were more often passive than transactional. Nearly equal proportions of youth reported that they did versus did not choose the brand of their most recent drink. Analysis revealed that the brand preferences of passive versus active source drinkers were highly similar, as were the brand preferences of respondent versus non-respondent choice drinkers. Stratification of respondents by age did not significantly change these results.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that youth are consuming a homogenous list of preferred brands regardless of the source of their most recently obtained alcohol or who selected the brand they drank.
(© The Author 2014. Medical Council on Alcohol and Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.)