REVIEW OF DRINKING PATTERNS OF RURAL ARAB AND JEWISH YOUTH IN THE NORTH OF ISRAEL*

Abstract

This article reviews four studies addressing alcohol drinking patterns among rural Arab and Jewish youth. Three religions, Moslem, Druze, and Christianity, were represented among the Arab population studied. The Arab adolescents come from villages, Arab towns, and mixed Arab–Jewish towns, while the Jewish youth come from kibbutzim and developing towns in the northern district of Israel. The first epidemiological study among rural adolescents was implemented in 1990. This study focused on frequency of drinking during the previous month, and amounts of alcohol consumed on a drinking occasion. The 1992 study focused on preferred sources of support after acquiring a drinking problem, reasons for drinking, and the social context of drinking in the previous year. The 1994 study focused on reasons for not drinking, preferred places of drinking, and ways of obtaining alcoholic beverages. The 1996 study dealt with frequency of drinking in the last year, and amounts of alcohol consumed on a drinking occasion. This review also includes urban–rural comparisons. Urban adolescents were drawn from Haifa, the largest city northern Israel. [Translations are provided in the International Abstracts Section of this issue.]

• Israel
• Rural areas
• Arab
• Jewish
• Adolescents
• Alcohol use

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shoshana Weiss

Shoshana Weiss received her D.Sc. from the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology in 1984. She is the research director of the Israel Society for the Prevention of Alcoholism, and the editor of the only Israeli scholastic, professional peer-reviewed journal in the addiction field: Alcohol in Israel—Interdisciplinary Scientific Journal. She has published numerous articles in the professional literature in English and in Hebrew.