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Exploring the impact of secondary supply laws on adolescent drinking trends in Australia

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posted on 2025-01-16, 22:53 authored by Rakhi Vashishtha, Amy PennayAmy Pennay, Paul DietzePaul Dietze, Michael LivingstonMichael Livingston

Objective: Adolescent alcohol consumption has declined in Australia over the past 20 years. Secondary supply laws (SSLs) typi-cally prohibit the supply of alcohol to adolescents by persons other than parents or guardians, or without parental consent. SSLs were introduced in Australia at different times in different states and territories over the period of declining alcohol consumption. In this study we examined the impact of variations in SSLs across Australia on young people’s drinking.

Method: We used six waves of the National Drug Strategy Household Survey, a cross-sectional survey of the Australian population, from 2001 to 2016. The study population was adolescents ages 14–17 years. Our primary measure of interest was exposure to SSLs. Data were analyzed using two-way linear and logistic regression models with fixed effects of Australian state/territory and time to identify the effect of SSLs on the frequency of drinking, past-year drinking, and the secondary supply source, respectively.

Results: We found no evidence of an association between SSLs and any of the three outcomes of interest.

Conclusions: SSLs are challenging to enforce, and, although they may empower parents to have more control over their children’s drinking, they were not associated with reductions in adolescent drinking in Aus-tralia. Researchers looking to explain the decline in adolescent drinking in Australia should investigate factors beyond SSLs.


Funding

This research was supported under the Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects funding scheme (Grant number DP160101380). Amy Pennay is supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career ResearcherAward (DE190101074). Michael Livingston is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Career Development Fellowship (1123840).

History

Publication Date

2021-01-01

Journal

Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs

Volume

82

Issue

1

Pagination

8p. (p. 76-83)

Publisher

Alcohol Research Documentation, Inc., Center of Alcohol & Substance Use Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

ISSN

1937-1888

Rights Statement

© 2021 Alcohol Research Documentation, Inc., Center of Alcohol & Substance Use Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

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