Participation with alcohol marketing and user-created promotion on social media, and the association with higher-risk alcohol consumption and brand identification among adolescents in the UK

Figures & data

Table 1. Sample profile based on unweighted and weighted frequencies.

	Unweighted		Weighted
Variable	n	%	n	%
Gender
Male	1,679	49	1,733	51
Female	1,720	51	1,666	49
Legal purchase age for alcohol
No	2,551	75	2,582	76
Yes	848	25	817	24
Ethnicity
White British	2,716	80	2,594	76
Other	647	19	779	23
Not specified	36	1	26	1
Country lived in
England	2,601	77	2,869	84
Scotland	424	12	265	8
Wales	250	7	160	5
Northern Ireland	124	4	105	3
IMD Quintile^a
1 (most deprived)	680	20	676	20
2	666	20	676	20
3	723	21	676	20
4	616	18	676	20
5 (least deprived)	712	21	676	20
Living arrangements
At home with parents or adult  family member	3,044	90	3,048	90
Other	355	10	351	10
In education^b	3,205	95	3,216	95
In employment^c	254	8	244	7
Drinking status^d
Current drinkers	1,615	48	1,590	48
Non-drinker	1,724	52	1747	52
Higher-risk consumption
Yes	708	21	707	21
No	2,631	56	2,630	56

^aCases excluded due to missing data =2; ^b=14; ^c=14; ^d=60.

Table 2. Participation with alcohol marketing and user-created promotion on social media young people in the UK, by current drinking status.

	Overall (n = 3,399)		Current drinkers (n = 1,590)		Non-Drinkers (n = 1,747)		Significance
	n	%	n	%	n	%	χ^2	p
Digital marketing channel
Liked alcohol brand on social media	188	5.5	156	9.8	29	1.7	105.62	<.001
Shared alcohol brand status, tweet, or picture	201	5.9	177	11.1	23	1.3	142.34	<.001
Searched for drinks advert (e.g. on YouTube)	131	3.9	99	6.2	30	1.7	45.54	<.001
Followed brand on social media	115	3.4	95	6.0	19	1.1	60.26	<.001
Entered competition on social media	100	2.9	75	4.7	23	1.3	33.80	<.001
Participated with at least one of the above forms of marketing	450	13.2	356	22.4	87	5.0	219.15	<.001
User-created alcohol promotion
Uploading status or pictures of self or friends drinking	415	12.2	390	24.5	19	1.1	425.05	<.001

Table 3. Identification of alcohol brands, by current drinking status.

	Overall (n = 3,399)		Current drinkers(n = 1,590)		Non-drinkers(n = 1,747)		Significance
Alcohol brand	n	%	n	%	n	%	χ^2	p
Fosters	1915	56.3	1191	74.9	695	39.8	417.85	<.001
Malibu Rum	1667	49.0	1153	72.5	485	27.8	667.11	<.001
WKD	1650	48.6	1156	72.8	464	26.6	710.74	<.001
Smirnoff	1546	45.5	1128	70.9	392	22.4	789.62	<.001
Jägermeister	1041	30.6	846	53.2	183	10.5	712.71	<.001
Kopparberg	561	16.5	425	26.7	129	7.4	225.26	<.001
Echo Falls	285	8.4	247	15.5	34	1.9	199.47	<.001
Hardy’s	88	2.6	70	4.4	17	1.0	38.59	<.001
Average (SD)	2.58 (2.12)		3.91 (1.84)		1.37 (1.55)		1,832.19a	<.001

^aBetween group comparison based on Welch F.

Table 4. Association between participation with alcohol marketing and user-created promotion on social media and higher-risk consumption in current drinkers.

	n	AORa	95% CI Lower	95% CI Upper	p
Age	1,591	1.33	1.21	1.46	<.001
Gender
Female	821	Ref
Male	770	1.67	1.29	2.16	<.001
IMD Quintile					.035
1 (most deprived)	228	Ref
2 v 1	336	1.76	1.13	2.74	.012
3 v 1 & 2	325	1.37	0.97	1.95	.077
4 v 1–3	346	1.26	0.93	1.72	.143
5 (most affluent) v 1–4	356	1.27	0.95	1.70	.112
Working status
Not working	1,378	Ref
Working (full or part-time)	213	1.13	0.79	1.63	.504
Living status
Living with parents or adult family	1,320	Ref
Living independently	271	1.68	1.16	2.42	.006
Frequency of mother drinking					.011
Never	115	Ref
Less than monthly v never	282	0.43	0.25	0.76	.003
Monthly or fortnightly v less often	281	1.12	0.75	1.67	.589
At least weekly v less often	849	0.92	0.68	1.23	.561
Not stated v all other categories	64	1.68	0.85	3.29	.133
Frequency of father drinking					.236
Never	77	Ref
Less than monthly v never	159	1.16	0.59	2.32	.664
Monthly or fortnightly v less often	202	0.68	0.41	1.11	.126
At least weekly v less often	964	0.77	0.55	1.07	.125
Not stated v all other categories	189	1.11	0.73	1.70	.624
Frequency of close friends drinking					<.001
Never	72	Ref
Less than monthly v never	188	0.63	0.30	1.34	.230
Monthly or fortnightly v less often	461	1.83	1.19	2.83	.006
At least weekly v less often	670	2.97	2.14	4.12	<.001
Not stated v all other categories	200	0.62	0.39	0.98	.040
Parents’ views
Neutral/unacceptable	475	Ref
Drinking acceptable	1,116	1.12	0.82	1.53	.466
Peer views
Neutral/unacceptable	154	Ref
Drinking acceptable	1,437	1.32	0.81	2.15	.269
Age of first drink					<.001
Age 13 or under	474	Ref
Age 14 to 15 (v 13 or under)	533	0.90	0.65	1.25	.533
Age 16 or over (v younger)	411	0.27	0.20	0.37	<.001
Not stated	173	0.93	0.62	1.39	.719
Awareness of wider alcohol marketing activity					.032
Low awareness	183	Ref
Medium v low	271	1.82	1.15	2.88	.011
High v medium & low	327	1.05	0.72	1.52	.795
Not stated v all other categories	810	0.86	0.67	1.10	.231
Own alcohol branded merchandise
No/not sure	1,139	Ref
Yes	452	1.45	1.10	1.91	.009
Number of social media apps used at least weekly					.029
Three or fewer	375	Ref
Four or five	602	1.42	1.02	2.00	.040
Six more	614	1.59	1.12	2.24	.009
Participation with marketing on social media					.011
None	1,228	Ref
One	204	0.91	0.62	1.33	.638
Two or more (max 5)	159	1.96	1.23	3.12	.005
Participation with user-created promotion
No	1,187	Ref
Yes	404	3.46	2.56	4.68	<.001

Base: Current drinkers (n = 1,591). Cases excluded due to missing values on one or more independent variables = 24.

Dependent variable: Higher-risk consumption (≥5 on AUDIT-C) in current drinkers (Higher-risk n = 696; Lower-risk n = 895).

Test of model coefficients: χ² (34) = 573.81, p < .001. Nagelkerke R²=0.41.

Hosmer & Lemeshow χ² (8) = 13.43, p = .098.

Cases correctly classified: 75%.

^aAdjusted for all other variables in the model, Adj OR, adjusted odds ratio; Ref, reference category; 95% CI, 95% confidence interval.

Table 5. Association between participation with alcohol marketing and user-created promotion on social media and brand identification in young people.

	Unstandardized coefficients		Standardised coefficients
Variables and reference categories	B	SE	β	t	p
Constant	−0.91	0.33		−2.79	0.005
Age	0.16	0.02	0.20	9.75	<0.001
Gender
Male (v female)	−0.13	0.05	−0.03	−2.37	0.018
Ethnicity
White British (v other)	0.50	0.07	0.09	7.12	<0.001
IMD Quintile
(1: most deprived to 5: most affluent)	−0.04	0.02	−0.03	−2.18	0.029
Country
Scotland (v England)	−0.15	0.08	−0.02	−1.80	0.072
Wales & Northern Ireland (v Eng)	−0.07	0.09	−0.01	−0.83	0.405
Educational status
In education (v not)	0.03	0.14	0.003	0.22	0.830
Working status
Working (v not)	0.34	0.12	0.04	2.92	0.004
Living status
Living independently (v with parents/adult family)	0.11	0.10	0.01	1.06	0.288
Not stated (v with parents or adult family)	−0.11	0.31	−0.01	−0.37	0.711
Higher-risk drinking
Non-drinker (v lower risk current drinker)	−1.03	0.09	−0.24	−11.45	<0.001
Higher-risk current drinker (v lower risk current drinker)	0.63	0.09	.122	7.29	<0.001
Frequency of mother drinking
At least weekly (v less often/never)	−0.02	0.06	−0.01	−0.35	0.728
Not stated (v less than weekly/never)	−0.10	0.15	−0.01	−0.67	0.502
Frequency of father drinking
At least weekly (v less often/never)	0.26	0.07	0.06	3.82	<0.001
Not stated (v less than weekly/never)	0.22	0.10	0.03	2.27	0.023
Frequency of close friends drinking
At least weekly (v less often/never)	0.20	0.08	0.04	2.63	0.009
Not stated (v less than weekly/never)	−0.12	0.08	−0.02	−1.60	0.110
Parents’ views
Drinking acceptable (v neutral/unacceptable)	0.06	0.07	0.01	0.87	0.382
Peer views
Drinking acceptable (v neutral/unacceptable)	0.21	0.07	0.05	2.97	0.003
Age of first drink
Age 13 or under (v 14 to 15 years)	0.06	0.09	0.01	0.68	0.496
Age 16 or over (v 14 to 15 years)	−0.10	0.10	−0.02	−0.99	0.320
Not stated (v 14 to 15 years)	−0.17	0.13	−0.02	−1.37	0.172
Awareness of wider alcohol marketing activity
Medium (v low awareness)	0.52	0.10	0.08	5.07	<0.001
High (v low awareness)	0.50	0.11	0.08	4.74	<0.001
Not stated (v low awareness)	0.37	0.08	0.09	4.72	<0.001
Own alcohol branded merchandise
Yes (v no/not sure)	0.52	0.08	0.09	6.93	<0.001
Number of social media apps use at least weekly	0.10	0.02	0.10	6.58	<0.001
Participation with alcohol marketing on social media	0.04	0.05	0.01	0.81	0.419
Participation with user-created promotion
Yes (v no/not sure)	0.34	0.09	0.05	3.66	<0.001

Base: all participants, n = 3,298. Cases excluded due to missing data on one or more variables = 101.

Dependent variable: Number of (masked) brands correctly identified (0–8) (M = 2.63, SD = 2.12).

Model shown is final block, F (30, 3267) = 110.93, p < .001.

Final step model change: F (1, 3267) = 13.39, p < .001.

Total variance explained (Adj. R² = 0.50). Durbin Watson = 1.999.