Perceptions of the Seriousness of Different Addictive Behaviors in the United Kingdom

Figures & data

Figure 1. Do you think the following are serious problems for our society? (1 = not at all serious; 10 = extremely serious).

Table 1. Demographic characteristics.

	UK 2021
	(n = 1422)
% Age
18–24	10.3
25–34	16.9
35–44	16.3
45–54	16.7
>55	39.8
% Female	51.5
% Married/common law/same sex partner	59.7
% Household income < UK£15,000	11.1
% Full/part time employed	60.4

Table 2. Rotated principal components matrix of societal problems, factor loadings.

	United Kingdom
	1	2	3
Alcohol problems	0.542	0.292	0.270
Theft and property crime	0.258	0.066	0.845
Environmental damage	−0.126	0.661	0.310
Cannabis	0.763	−0.177	0.257
Other drug use (cocaine, amphetamine, heroin)	0.612	−0.003	0.553
Lacking gender equality	0.319	0.697	−0.099
Smoking tobacco	0.660	0.218	0.069
Violent crime	0.259	0.160	0.783
Large wage differences	0.115	0.756	−0.071
Prostitution	0.712	0.214	0.203
Poverty	0.096	0.767	0.125
Gambling problems	0.649	0.282	0.141
Ethnic discrimination	0.391	0.511	−0.042
Misuse of medical drugs	0.580	0.362	0.195
Financial crimes	0.220	0.551	0.280
COVID Pandemic	0.269	0.393	0.116
Initial eigenvalues	5.6	2.1	1.1
% Variance explained	35.1	13.2	6.9

Shaded cells indicate a factor loading of 0.4 of greater.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.