Adolescent alcohol use in the Netherlands: the role of ethnicity, ethnic intermarriage, and ethnic school composition.

OBJECTIVE To examine the association between ethnicity, ethnic intermarriage, ethnic composition of schools and adolescent alcohol use. DESIGN Data were derived from the National Survey of Students in the Netherlands, a repeated, nationally representative, cross-sectional study of students aged 11-20 in secondary school. Surveys conducted in 1994, 1996, 1999, and 2001 were pooled, leading to a total of 30,346 native Dutch students and 6227 ethnic minority students. Alcohol use was based on whether the student consumed alcohol at all, drinking frequency, and drunkenness. Multilevel methods were applied. RESULTS Ethnic minority students showed lower levels of alcohol use than Dutch students in each measure. Among ethnic minorities, the level of alcohol use was particularly low among students from a Muslim background. Students with ethnically mixed parents had higher levels of alcohol use than students with mono-ethnic parents. The larger the presence of Muslims in school, the lower the alcohol consumption of students from a Dutch and ethnic minority background. CONCLUSIONS Ethnic differences in alcohol consumption among students seem to reflect differential alcohol use norms prevalent in their parents' country of birth. Alcohol use norms are presumably stricter in families with mono-ethnic parents and in predominantly Muslim schools than in families with ethnically mixed parents and in schools with fewer Muslim students.