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Alcohol Advertising and Marketing Appear to Influence Early Adolescent Drinking
Children with a high exposure to alcohol advertising and marketing in the sixth grade are more likely to report drinking beer in the seventh grade than are those who report a low exposure the prior year, according to a RAND study released in the June issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.
“Parents may think they don’t have to worry about their sixth grader seeing ads for beer; underage drinking issues seem such a long way off. But sixth grade — or even before then — is the time to talk with children about alcohol marketing techniques and drinking,” said Rebecca Collins, a RAND behavioral scientist and lead author of the study.
The figure shows how exposure to many forms of alcohol advertising and to alcohol television advertisements, in particular, during sixth grade is associated with youth drinking in seventh grade. The figure splits the youth into two groups: those with low and those with high exposure to alcohol advertising.
Those with Higher Exposure to Alcohol Advertising in Sixth Grade Are More Likely to Report Drinking Beer in Seventh Grade |
SOURCE: “Early Adolescent Exposure to Alcohol Advertising and Its Relationship to Underage Drinking,” Journal of Adolescent Health, Vol. 40, No. 6, June 2007, pp. 527-534, Rebecca L. Collins, Phyllis L. Ellickson, Daniel McCaffrey, Katrin Hambarsoomians. |
Those with high exposure to alcohol television advertisements in sixth grade are 27 percent more likely to drink in seventh grade. Those with high exposure to multiple forms of alcohol advertising in sixth grade are 53 percent more likely to drink in seventh grade.
The results indicate a similar pattern for adolescent intentions to drink. The percentage of sixth-graders who say they intend to drink is 13 percent and 36 percent higher among those with high exposure to alcohol television advertisements and to all the forms of alcohol-related marketing studied, respectively, compared with those with low exposure. Conversely, when asked if they definitely do not intend to drink, those who report more exposure are less likely to answer affirmatively than those in the low-exposure group.
“Children’s exposure to alcohol advertising during early adolescence appears to influence both beer drinking and their intentions to drink a year later,” said Collins.
The study confirms that alcohol television advertising, which occurs mostly during sports programming, is a key factor. But the study also shows that the 19 percent of sixth-graders who own a hat, poster, or T-shirt promoting alcohol are nearly twice as likely to drink or intend to drink as are other youngsters when they reach seventh grade.
“My guess is that many parents think it’s harmless: Your kid has a Budweiser T-shirt, it’s just funny,” said Collins. “But it probably is a subtle communication to kids that beer drinking is cool.”
The study is based on a survey of 1,786 South Dakota sixth-graders about their media use and exposure to alcohol marketing and a second survey of the same children a year later about their drinking intentions and behavior.
Previous work at RAND and elsewhere has linked alcohol marketing to drinking among older youth. The sixth-graders in this new study are the youngest group so far to show these links. Beyond television advertisements, the study asked about exposure to advertising and marketing in magazines, on radio, and through in-store displays and about whether the youth own any promotional items from alcohol beverage companies.
“Our study suggests the broader marketing techniques are important influences on kids,” said Collins. 
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Higher Levels of Religiosity Among People with HIV Can Help Prevent Its Spread
HIV-positive people who say religion is an important part of their lives are likely to have fewer sexual partners and to engage less frequently in high-risk sexual behavior than are other people with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to a RAND study in the February 2007 issue of the Journal of Sex Research.
“Moral beliefs may indicate an underlying altruism and a desire to make sure no one else is infected with HIV.” |
The study measured religiosity by asking a nationally representative sample of 1,421 people getting medical care for HIV — 932 of whom reported recent sexual activity — to report how important religion was in their lives, whether they identified with a particular religious group, whether they preferred being with people of the same religion, and how often they attended religious or spiritual services.
The figure shows that the level of religiosity among sexually active people with HIV is related to whether they engage in sexually risky behaviors. For example, only about one-third of those who considered themselves highly religious said they had more than one sexual partner, compared with nearly two-thirds who did not consider themselves religious.
The study did not identify what specific component of religiosity made a difference in sexual activity. But David Kanouse, a RAND behavioral scientist and principal investigator on the project, suggested that moral beliefs and membership in a faith community may be important.
Those with HIV Who Say They Are More Religious Are Less Likely to Engage in Riskier Sexual Behaviors |
SOURCE: “Religiosity, Denominational Affiliation, and Sexual Behaviors Among People with HIV in the United States,” Journal of Sex Research, Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 49-58, March 2007, Frank H. Galvan, Rebecca L. Collins, David E. Kanouse, Philip Pantoja, Daniela Golinelli.NOTE: For the question regarding more than one partner, there were 932 participants in the study; for any unprotected sex, 923; and for any high-risk sex, 921. |
“Moral beliefs may indicate an underlying altruism and a desire to make sure no one else is infected with HIV,” he said. “Promoting these feelings could be used in HIV prevention programs to help reduce the rate of spreading HIV to others.”
Researchers examined differences by denominations and found that Catholics with HIV were less likely than other mainline Christians, non-Christians, and nonreligious people with HIV to report having unprotected sex. Catholics were also less likely to report high-risk sex than other mainline Christians and reported fewer partners than non-Christians.
There was no statistical difference between Evangelicals and Catholics in reported sexual activity. Evangelicals were as likely as Catholics to have fewer sexual partners and equally unlikely to engage in unprotected and high-risk sex.
Religion remains a dominant force in America today, but the main focus of many faith communities is sexual abstinence, rather than examining how else religious beliefs could help to prevent the spread of HIV, said lead author Frank Galvan, an assistant professor at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles.
“This study suggests that there’ a role for religious institutions to play in the fight against the spread of HIV,” Galvan said. “They have these core belief systems that do have a positive impact on the lives of people who are HIV-positive and who are sexually active. Religiosity
is an untapped resource in the whole struggle against HIV and AIDS and should be looked at more thoroughly.”
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RAND Study Informs U.S. Debate over Terrorism Risk Insurance
The U.S. Congress is wrestling with the decision of whether to extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) — legislation that was passed after 9/11 to provide a temporary federal terrorism risk insurance program. The reauthorization legislation pending a vote by the U.S. House of Representatives calls for a 15-year extension of TRIA to 2022, but the U.S. Treasury Department has recommended paring back TRIA, with an eye toward eliminating it altogether. The U.S. Senate has yet to weigh in.
The decision is fraught with difficult-to-estimate uncertainties, ranging from the frequency of terrorist attacks to the type of attacks that are likely to occur, such as nuclear, biological, chemical, or radiological (NBCR) attacks versus those using conventional weapons. But Lloyd Dixon, coprincipal investigator of a RAND study that used computer simulation to assess the performance of three policy options, has concluded that “TRIA has important positive effects on the market for terrorism insurance, particularly for attacks using conventional weapons.”
The study examined these three options: letting TRIA expire, extending it (with coverage for conventional attacks only), and expanding it (by requiring insurers to offer coverage for both conventional and NBCR attacks) without making other changes in the program. For thousands of attack scenarios involving both conventional and NBCR attacks, the study compared the policy options by assessing their performance on four measures: (1) fraction of losses for which the attacked businesses receive no compensation, (2) cost to taxpayers, (3) fraction of the insurance industry’ net worth used for payouts, and (4) costs to future insurance policyholders.
AP IMAGES/MARK LENNIHANSteel columns for the Freedom Tower rise from the base of the World Trade Center site in New York City in February. The U.S. federal government is debating whether it will extend its terrorism property insurance program, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002, that is due to expire at the end of the year. |
Leaving TRIA in place, the study found, would limit the fraction of uncompensated losses and usually limit the cost to taxpayers. TRIA could entail high taxpayer costs in scenarios involving the largest conventional attacks. But “the expected cost to taxpayers over all conventional attacks is actually lower with TRIA than without TRIA under a wide range of assumptions,” said coprincipal investigator Robert Lempert. Expected taxpayer cost is lower because the probability of very large conventional attacks is thought to be substantially lower than the probability of small and medium-sized attacks.
Expanding TRIA to cover NBCR attacks without making other changes in the law, such as firming up its promise that total claims payments from the government and insurers combined will not exceed $100 billion for insured losses due to a terrorist attack, would not effectively address the added risks posed by such attacks to businesses and would substantially undermine program performance for conventional attacks, the study found.
“Determining the appropriate federal role in providing terrorism insurance is complicated,” said Dixon. “Apparently straightforward changes in TRIA can have adverse consequences. Policymakers must be careful to choose an intervention that achieves the desired goals and avoids unintended consequences.”
For more information:
Trade-Offs Among Alternative Government Interventions in the Market for Terrorism Insurance: Interim Results, RAND/DB-525-CTRMP, ISBN 978-0-8330-4186-9, 2007.
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Be Wary of Drawing Unwarranted Lessons from Iraq War, Study Warns
| A Number of Factors Contributed to the Swift Coalition Defeat of Iraqi Forces | ||||||||||||||
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Although coalition forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) were able to take down Saddam Hussein’s regime in less than three weeks with comparatively few casualties, policymakers should be cautious about what this experience implies for future conflicts, a new RAND study suggests.
Based on information derived mostly from interviews with, and interrogations of, senior Iraqi military and civilian officials, the study identified a series of factors that explain why Iraqi resistance to the coalition invasion was so weak (see the table).
Despite the rout, the study argues that U.S. policymakers should be careful not to draw unwarranted lessons from OIF, particularly the notion that high-tech weaponry and communications will inevitably enable smaller ground forces to be decisive against larger, but less high-tech, enemy forces. Policymakers should also be cautious about extrapolating operational lessons from OIF, such as whether invasions can be conducted at minimal cost in U.S. casualties in the absence of extended preparatory air campaigns.
“The extraordinary battlefield advantages that coalition forces enjoyed in Iraq during March and April 2003 may not be replicated in future conflicts,” said Stephen Hosmer, the study’s author.
Despite speculation to the contrary, Hussein did not plan for a protracted guerrilla war after an Iraqi defeat in the conventional war, the study points out. Nonetheless, Iraqi actions before and during OIF helped facilitate and shape the insurgency that followed.
“The desertion of Iraqi military and governmental structures in April 2003 released into the countryside numerous persons with the skills, resources, and potential motivation to mount a resistance and deprived coalition commanders of the indigenous military forces they had counted on to help stabilize Iraq,” explained Hosmer.
The key lesson for future U.S. war planners seems clear: When taking down an enemy government or otherwise invading a foreign land, U.S. forces must be both appropriately configured for stability operations and sufficiently numerous and strong to establish firm and prompt control over the areas occupied, to guard national borders, and to secure enemy arms depots and other sensitive sites.
Hosmer further warns that OIF could inform the behavior of future U.S. adversaries beyond Iraq. Enemies might seek to counter threats from superior U.S. military forces by acquiring nuclear weapons, by trying to deny U.S. forces air supremacy (or to reduce the effects of that supremacy), or by adopting strategies that emphasize urban and guerrilla warfare.
“In dealing with a future guerrilla-type response, the United States will need forces that are organized, trained, equipped, and culturally sensitized for counterinsurgency warfare,” Hosmer argues. “Unfortunately, such attributes and capabilities were lacking in many of the U.S. units that first confronted the insurgent resistance in Iraq.”
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