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1

Spożycie napojów alkoholowych w Polsce w świetle badań ankietowych

100%

Święcicki A.

Archiwum Kryminologii

|

1964

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issue II

293-345

2

Rozmiary i dystrybucja spożycia alkoholu w Polsce. Oceny oparte na badaniu na próbie udziałowej i losowej

80%

Jasiński J.

Archiwum Kryminologii

|

1992

|

issue XVIII

213-228

EN

The Problem Statement The main goals of the alcohol consumption surveys, repeatedly carried out Poland, are to describe the changes in the drinking subcultures of different segments of the population, to monitor the emergence of new drinking practices and the discontinuance of old ones, and to record the evolution of attitudes toward alcohol. In order to facilitate the analysis of these and related phenomena, similar instruments were used and applied in a consistent manner in several of the consecutive surveys. Any substantial change in the formulation of the questions asked or in the manner they are presented to the respondents (e.g. a mailed questionnaire versus a personal interview), raises a number of problems regarding the interpretation of the results obtained. Should the changes observed be treated as reflecting the transformations of the processes studied, or should they be attributed to alterations in the way the respondents were approached? On the other hand, repeated use of the same questionnaire applied in exactly the same manner does not seem to be an attractive proposition, since new problems and interests emerge and new survey research methods are being developed. In the Polish alcohol consumption surveys an attempt has been made to find a balance between securing continuity and introducing change. However, sometimes changes have to be made irrespectively of the researcher’s wishes. They may stem from resources constraints forcing the researcher to adopt a cheaper or less time consuming method of conducting a survey, or from some other reasons. In the case of the Polish alcohol consumption surveys such an external change occurred recently in relation to the sample design. Nine surveys have been conducted in Poland since 1961. Five of these surveys have utilized quota samples, while in four, random samples were employed. However, the studies based on random samples, for the most part, are not representative of the majority of Polish research on drinking practices. Instead, three of the four surveys based on random samples are unique in that they were devoted to an examination of the following issues: meaning attached by the general public to the notion of abstinence; estimation of the content and influence exercised by the antialcohol propaganda; and the effectiveness of the appeals by the Roman Catholic church to abstain from drinking alcoholic beverages during the month of August in the last 3 years. The studies based on quota samples are much more representative of Polish surveys on drinking practices. In these studies, the primary focus has been on the description and nature of drinking occasions. For example, this was the focus in the pioneering surveys by A. Swiecicki carried out in 1961 and 1962, in J. K. Falewicz’s survey of 1968, and in the Polish Alcohol Consumption Surveys of 1980 and 1985. In all of these surveys the same way of measuring alcohol consumption was adopted and their results were analyzed according to the same methodology. The data collection was done by the Center for Public Opinion Survey and Program Studies of the State Committee for Radio and TV in Warsaw for all the surveys. However, in recent years, this Center has been increasingly using random samples of the population in its research, first restricting and more recently abandoning completely the use of quota samples. From now on, the new Polish alcohol consumption surveys will be conducted on random samples only. While the shift to the use of random samples of the population represents a methodological step forward, it raises some important questions. Perhaps most important is whether results from these new surveys will be comparable with results from former surveys? The study reported in this paper is aimed at providing an answer to this question. In the case of a random sample, at least initially, every object in the population has to have an equal probability of being drawn, and at least the first step in the sampling procedure has to be taken randomly. In a quota sample, on the other hand, the usual procedure is that the interviewer has to interview a specified number of subjects with predetermined characteristics (e.g. men; 20‒29 years old; having primary educaiion only; etc.) How the interviewer finds these persons is left to his ingenuity, and even if he does not select them by applying any krown criteria, he is not drawing his part of the sample randomly. If all the interviewers follow exactly the instructions in selecting interviewees, the distribution of the characteristics of the quota sample should be the same as in the general population. It is hoped, but only hoped, that it will secure the representativeness of the sample. To what extent is this hope fulfilled cannot be determined. The Sample In September 1985 the data for the second Polish Alcohol Consumption Survey were collected on a quota sample (QS). Four weeks later, in October 1985, some items from the questionnaire used in that survey were added to a routinely conducted public opinion poll carried out on a random sample (RS). The sizes of the samples were 1808 and 882, respectively. In both cases the field work was done by the Center for Public Opinion Survey. The samples were comparable to one another in terms of the respondents’ occupation, sex, level of education, and proportion of people living in urban and rural areas. However, both samples differed from the general population with respect to age. In the QS, persons aged 60 and older were underrepresented (by about 12%), while those aged 40‒59 were overrepresented (again by about 12%). Within the RS, those aged l6‒19 were underrepresented (by about 6%). The former discrepancy must have originated from the interviewers’ not foliowing closely enough the instructions given to them as to the age of persons they had to interview. The latter discrepancy stemmed from the sampling procedure; the RS was derived from the 1984 election lists, which covered the population of 18 years old and over. One year later, in 1985, these lists included only persons aged 19 and older. The differences in the age structure in the QS, RS, and in the general population are of some significance for estimations of tne coverage rate and for comparability of the samples, and thus will be further discussed later on in the paper. Frequenct and Quantity In the Polish Alcohol Consumption Surveys, as in previous Polish research, the level of consumption has been estimated by means of the last occasion approach. In order to make such estimates a number of assumptions have to be accepted. They are related to the typicality of the occasion described by the respondent in terms of kind of occasion, amount of alcohol consumed, etc. Additionally, some assumptions regarding the frequency of drinking also have to be accepted. These requirements may seem unrealistically far going. However, two points have to be considered. Firstly, the more typical an occasion of drinking is ‒ the more likely, it is to be reported to the interviewer. Secondly, in epidemiological research the interest is on categories or types of respondents and not on a single individual; in groups of respondents, unconventional occasions tend, at least in part, to annul their impact on the means and other measures describing the drinking modalities. The variables used in the Polish Alcohol Consumption Surveys to establish the drinking patterns were: kind of beverage, quantity consumed, and frequency of drinking. There were no differences between the QS and the RS in respect to the frequency of drinking wine purchased in stores as well as home made fruit wine. However, there were some differences in the case of spirit and beer. In the RS, two categories of spirit drinkers could be recognized more distinctly than in the QS; infrequent (i.e. drinking spirits less often than once a month), and very frequent (i.e. several times a week). The former category consisted of 45,5 per cent (QS) and 48,1 per cent (RS), respectively, and the latter of 21,3 per cent (QS) and 30,0 per cent (RS). In the case of beer consumers, there were significantly more infrequent drinkers in the RS than in the QS (48,6 and 34,9 per cent, respectively), and fewer very frequent drinkers (38,5 and 32,5 per cent, respictively). Significantly higher quantities consumed on one occasion were reported in the QS than in the RS, irrespectively of beverage. This would suggest that the interviewers collecting data for the QS tended, possibly without even realizing it, to select prospective respondents from among persons consuming more alcohol than average. The Beverages One of the consequences of the above differences in regard to the frequency of drinking and quantities of alcohol consumed is the overestimation of the concentration of consumption in research based on QSs. The concentration of consumption is traditionally used to refer to the size of proportion of consumers who drink about half of all alcohol consumed. According to an estimate derived from the RS in 1985 in Poland, half of spirits were consumed by about 10 per cent of drinkers (rather than by 7 per cent as indicated by the QS), and of wine purchased ‒ by 8 per cent of drinkers (rather than by 7 per cent); in the case of drinkers of home made wine (5 per cent), and of beer (10 per cent) the estimates of concentration of consumption proved to be the same in the QS and in the RS. The shrinking of the coverage rate was another consequence of the overestimation of the quantities of alcohol consumed of the frequency of drinking of some alcoholic beverages. The comparison of the amount of alcoholic beverages sold during 1985 in the country with the amount accounted for by the surveys, reveals the following picture: QS RS spirits 50,6 per cent 47,8 per cent wine purchased 49,3 per cent 25,8 per cent beer 81,5 per cent 45,2 per cent Total 55,9 per cent 48,1 per cent The substantial differences in the coverage rate are noticed only in relations to wine and beer, e.g. to the beverages of lesser importance considering the Polish drinking patterns. The absence of substantial differences between the RS and the QS in relation to spirits stemmed from the fact that the overestimation of the amount drunk on one occasion was partly compensated for by the underestimation of the size of the category of the very frequent drinkers. As far as the better and wine drinkers were concerned no such compensation was present. The data on the sale of alcoholic beverages indicate that in that in 1985 about 68 per cent of all alcohol purchased in Poland was spirits. Of the total amount of alcohol consumed, the QS indicated that spirits accounted for 62 per cent, while the RS indicated that spirits accounted for 74 per cent. The first estimate was too low, the other too high, each by 6 per cent. As could be expected from the low coverage rate of wine, in the research based on the RS, the place of wine in the structure of beverages consumed was underestimated (9 per cent instead of 15 per cent of all alcohol consumed). The place occupied by beer was estimated correctly by the RS (18 per cent). The modest contribution of beer and wine to the total amount of alcohol consumed should be attributed mainly to the drinking habits prevailing in Poland, but also partly to the unmet demand for beer and for wine, in particular for imported grape wine. The analysis of the data from the QS showed that drinking one kind of alcoholic beverage raised the likelihood of drinking another kind of alcoholic beverage. This was true with regard to every beverage type and all these relationships were statistically significant. The data from the RS corroborated fully the above results. In the case of persons who consumed two kinds of alcoholic beverages, a further question could be asked, viz. do persons who drink greater quantity of one beverage also tend to drink more of the other one. This was the case in respect to all of beverages both in the QS in the RS. Consumption Level In order to estimate the respondents’ level of alcohol consumption all beverages consumed had to be recounted according to their content of alcohol, and added up. The distribution of the respondents according to the level of their consumption revealed some important differences between the estimates derived from the QS and RS. First of all, according to the RS, there were significantly more teetolers in the general population (23 per cent) than according to the QS (16, 1 per cent). This is partly due to the underrepresentation persons aged 60 and older in the QS. Relatively more persons in this age group are non-drinkers than in the lower age brackets. The other reason for this discrepancy in the estimate of the size of the fraction of non-drinkers is the already mentioned tendency of the interviewers to select as prospective respondents drinkers rather than abstainers while collecting data for the QS. The other difference between the RS and QS relates to the proportion of persons drinking substantial amounts of alcohol. On the whole, the RS indicates that it is smaller than the QS does. The extrapolation of the results obtained in the RS on the adult population in the country leads to the following conclusion. In 1985 there were about 2,1 million persons who annually consumed more than 16 liters of pure alcohol in Poland. They were consuming at least one half a litter bottle of vodka in every ten days. Among them nearly 1,5 million consumed at least 24 liters of pure alcohol annually, i.e. at least one bottle of vodka per six days. This group of drinkers represented only 5 per cent of the adult population, but consumed nearly 40 per cent of all alcohol in the country. It was stated before that only about half of the total amount of alcohol consumed was accounted for by the survey based on the RS. The most important reason for the underreporting seems to be, apart from forgetting and concealing, the underrepresentation of heavy drinkers in the sample. Because of this, it is likely that the group of drinkers who consume at least 24 liters of pure alcohol annually is considerably more numerous, and that they probably drink even a greater proportion of all alcohol consumed in the country. Drinkers, Abstainers, Teetolaters Who is a teetotaler seems self-evident and not requiring special consideration only as long, however, as the responds from the general population are not asked what their understanding of the term is. In one of the recent Polish general pop lation surveys this question was addressed and some surprising results were obtained. Although 69 per cent of the respondents considered a teetotaler somebody who has not been drinking any beverages containing alcohol, there were also persons having other opinions in this matter. As many as l5 per cent described a teetotaler as a person who drinks small quantities of alcohol, infrequently, a few times a year only, and further 2 per cent described a teetotaler as a person who does not drink vodka. In order to avoid this issue, in the questionnaire applied both the QS and to the RS, a question was asked whether the respondent had been drinking any alcoholic beverages during the last 12 months preceding the interview. Those who responded in the negative are considered to be teetotalers. Those who have not been drinking a particular beverage are called abstainers, i.e. abstaining refers only to not drinking a particular beverage. This means, that according to this definition abstainers include persons who drink as well as those who do not. Consequently, all teetotalers are abstainers, but among the latter there also drinkers (of some beverages). According to the terminology adopted here only drinkers who consume all kinds of alcoholic beverages listed in the questionnaire can not be called abstainers. The beverage consumed by most Poles is vodka. According to the RS only 28 per cent of the respondents abstained from drinking vodka (12 per cent of men and 42 per cent of women). In this respect the differences between the QS and the RS were not significant. In the case of all other beverages the RS produced significantly higher estimates of the fraction of abstainers than the QS. According to the RS, 65 per cent of respondents do not drink beer (46 per cent of men and 82 per cent of women), 68 per cent do not drink wine purchased (46 per cent of men and 71 per cent of women), and 78 per cent do not drink home made wine (75 per cent of men and 81 per cent of women). The QS and the RS are in concordance on a number of points. Firstly, on the degree of popularity of the various alcoholic beverages. Judging from the size of the fraction of abstainers, spirits is the most widely consumed beverage, followed by beer, wine purchased, and home made wine. Secondly, there are consistently more drinkers among men than among women; only in the case of home made wine is the difference in the size of the fraction of drinkers among men and women not significant. Thirdly, more than half of women drink spirits, i. e. many more than any other alcoholic beverage. It contradicts the belief, widely held in Poland, that vodka is a man’s and wine a woman’s beverage. Fourthly, abstaining from any beverage is equally spread in rural as in urban areas. It illustrates the process of unification of behaviour patterns in Poland, or as it is sometimes formulated – of the urbanization of rural culture, and ruralization of the urban life styles. The size of the fraction of abstainers is, irrespective of the beverage, closely related to the age of the respondents. The older the respondent – starting from the 20–29 age group – the larger the fraction of abstainers. Drinking is also related to the level of education attained. In the case of spirits, wine purchased, and home made wine, the higher the respondents educational attainment the greater the fraction of drinkers. It corresponds to the observation made in a number of countries, according to which the higher the social status – the smaller the fraction of abstainers, the grater the frequency of drinking, and the smaller the amount consumed on one occasion. The above relationship do not apply to beer, which in Poland seems to be a beverage consumed primarily by blue–collar workers. The QS and the RS show the same pattern of results between drinking and living in rural versus urban communities as found for age and level of education of the respondent. Finally, the teetotalers differ markedly from the drinkers. Here again the results of the QS and RS are in harmony. There are significantly more teetotalers among women than among men, and in the age group 40 years old and over (in particular – among those 60 years old and over). There are also more teetotalers among less educated than more educated, and among unqualified blue–collar workers and peasants than among qualified blue–collar workers and white–collar employees. Concluding Remarks There has been a prospective change in the sampling method used in Polish alcohol consumption surveys. This called into question the feasibility of long term trend analysis of the drinking habits prevailing in Poland. In order to dispel the arising doubts, the present inquiry has been carried out comparing the results of the new sampling method (primarily relying on the use of random samples) with the prior method which utilized quota samples. In this project, the same questions relating to drinking practices were put to two groups of respondents. One consisted of a quota sample (QS; n =1808), and the other of a random sample (RS; n = 882) of the adult population. The comparison of results from the two samples leads to the following two observations. Firstly, the numerical values of various parameters characterizing drinking practices, such as the overall consumption level and that of particular beverages, or that of quantities imbibed on one occasion, etc., differ in the QS and the RS. In a number of instances these differences are statistically significant. The results based on the RS suggest a somewhat lower level of alcohol consumption than the ones based on the QS, and shift the coverage rate slightly below 50 per cent. Secondly, the QS and the RS generated very similar pictures of drinking patterns prevailing in Poland, in terms of the kinds of beverages consumed, interrelationship between the various beverages consumed, concentration of consumption, and social traits of people drinking more and drinking less alcohol. The general conclusion emerging from the research project described here can be formulated as follows. The QS provided a fairly true picture of the drinking practices in Poland, however, in order to establish the long term trends in these practices, it is necessary to take into account the corrections stemming from the estimates derived from the RS.

3

Spożycie napojów alkoholowych w Polsce w 1985 r.

70%

Jasiński J.

Archiwum Kryminologii

|

1991

|

issue XVII

199-285

EN

The Surveys Since 1961, nine alcohol consumption surveys were carried out on the national level in Poland. The interests of their authors, the contents of questionnaires, and the ways of conducting the surveys varied, but most of them exhibited some common features. First of all, the respondents were met personally by the interviewers who filled up the questionnaires during the interview. Most of the surveys were based on quota samples of adult population, but in some also youngsters aged over 15 or 16 were included into the sample. The last occasion approach prevailed in the surveys; in one of them only, the respondents were asked to describe their last three drinking occasions. In some surveys, the respondents were also requested to estimate the frequency of their drinking of spirits during the last three months. In the present paper, some findings of the fifth and seventh surveys are analysed. The two surveys were carried out in 1980 and 1985, respectively. The estimate of frequency of drinking spirits derived from answers to the questions related to drinking during the last three months and to those about the last drinking occasion proved to differ markedly in exceptional cases only. However, as expected, the last occasion approach produced somewhat higher estimates of consumption level than that based on the respondent’s appraisal of the frequency of his or her own drinking during the last three months. The coverage rate was similar in both surveys: 47 per cent in 1980 and 56 per cent in 1985, and its level is in accordance with the findings obtained in surveys carried out in other countries. The Questions The questionnaires of both surveys included several questions related to positive and negative experiences the respondents had had as a result of their drinking. The proper part of the questionnaire used in the 1980 survey was of an experimental character. Its main aim was to collect data on the issue neglected in the Polish literature, i.e. on rewards resulting from drinking alcohol. In the literature in question, much attention had been paid to the detrimental consequences of drinking as if they were the only ones. The assumption that drinking has also some positive value for alcohol consumers seemed plausible: why would they otherwise drink at all? The questions asked were not intended to reveal what really happened to the persons who consume alcohol, but rather to get some insight in to the way they perceived occurrences which they rightly or mistakenly attribute to their drinking of alcohol. What seemed interesting were also the spheres of life in which alcohol played a positive as opposed to a negative role. As that part of the questionnaire was of an exploratory nature only, the respondents were asked about events in which alcohol helped them somehow or caused them getting into trouble, whenever that occurred. In the questionnaire of the 1985 survey, more attention was paid to the wording of those questions. Firstly, the respondents were asked about occurrences which had happened during the last twelve months preceding the interview. That was the time limit introduced in order to separate drinkers from non-drinkers, and in that case also to distinguish the “current” from the past events. Secondly, in the case of a good as well as bad experience, the types of occurrences in question were both of a trivial character and of such a nature that they could be related to a single drinking occasion. Thirdly, in reration to some spheres of life questions, about both positive and negative consequences were asked. Some of the questions included in the 1980 and 1985 questionnaires were formulated the way adopted in the Scandinavian Drinking Survey of 1979 which was carried out in Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Similar questions were also asked in Finnish surveys conducted in 1968, 1976, and 1984. The Polish, the Scandinavian, and the Finnish surveys, were carried out at different times, in different manners, and on differently drawn sampres. Therefore, it would be impossible to compare, their findings directly. However, it seems interesting to point to some most striking discrepancies between them as a point of departure for theorizing on possible differences in the role played by alcohol in social life in Poland and in the Scandinavian countries. The Findings The main findings of the inquiry qan be summarized as follows: As could be expected, asking about events which might have occurred at any time in the respondents’ life has led to a higher proportion of positive answers as compared to asking about events that occurred during the last twelve months. In the Polish surveys, this could be noticed in the case of sorting out probrems related to people close to the respondent (49.7 and 21.7 per cent, respectivery), of taking a more, optimistic view of life (40.8 and 18.7 per cent, respectively) and in several other questions, while in the case of the Finnish surveys, in relation to being picked up by the police for being drunk (8.5–10.9 and 3.5 per cent, respectively). This observation is fairly obvious and has been mentioned here only to support confidence in the findings obtained. The questions included in the questionnaire of the 1980 Polish survey were formulated in a manner that was not too well suited for comparisons between the positive and negative experiences stemming from drinking. However, they provided some clues for supposing that good experiences occur more often than bad ones. The evidence provided by the answers in the l985 survey clearly supports this assumption. First of all, the prevalence of an experience is related to its type. The most common ones were: being more resolute in company, and spending more money than one otherwise would (it happened to 36.2 and 34.9 per cent of drinkers, respectively, during the last twelve months). It shows that positive as well as negative experiences related to drinking may be quite common. Most revealing are the answers to questions that pertain to similar types of events. There were four times more drinkers who felt that because of alcohol they were more resolute in company than those who acted as spoil-sports in company because of their drinking (36.2 as opposed to 8.3 per cent, respectively); three times more respondents who sorter out problems connected with their job with the help of alcohol than those who had some trouble at work because of their drinking (23.8 as opposed to 6.7 per cent, respectively); distinctly more sorted out problems related to people close to them than spoiled their relations with such persons (21.7 as opposed to 14.8 per cent, respectively); and finally, many more respondents took an optimistic rather than a pessimistic view of life because of drinking (18.7 as opposed to 10.4 per cent, respectively), It shows definitely that positive consequences of their own drinking are noticed by far more persons than the negative ones. The above findings concern the distribution of answers obtained from all drinkers in the sample. However, they do not preclude the contents of individual respondents’ answers. Are there two separate groups of drinkers: one consisting of those who have positive experiences with drinking, and another one, distinctly smaller, made up of those who have negative experiences related to the use of alcohol? Or is there one group only: the same people have good and bad experiences with drinking, the good ones prevailing in most cases? None of these alternatives appeared to be fully substantiated by the findings of the 1985 survey. First of all, more than two in five of the drinkers reported none of the good experiences listed, and more than one in two – none of the bad experiences. Thus there is a third (or a second) group of respondents drinking alcohol, viz. those who have neither positive nor negative experiences with it. Hence the possible concurrence of good and bad experiences related to drinking may be found in about a half of the drinkers only. All types of good and bad experiences were positively correlated with all types of bad experience listed in the questionnaire (X2 = from 87.8 to 274.3; df = 4; p < T = from 0.17 to 0.32). This points clearly to the second of the above alternatives, viz. to the view that those were predominantly the same persons who admitted having had both good and bad experiences related to drinking. Formulating this observation differently, one might say that having some good experience with drinking enhances the likelihood of having also bad experience with alcohol, and vice versa. In order to proceed further in this analysis, two indices were calculated. Both of them are related to variety and not quantity of experiences, as the questionnaire of the 1985 survey did not contain questions about how often the separate types of experiences listed had occurred. To form the index of good experiences, the number of “yes” answers was calculated, and accordingly the respondents received scores from 0 (no “yes” answers) to 7 (“yes” answers to all types of experiences quoted). The index of bad experiences was formed similarly. The mean score was 1.65 for positive experiences and 1.12 for the negative ones which shows once more that the incidence of the first kind of experiences prevailed over the other one. As it has already been mentioned, quite a number of respondents gave no “yes” answers at all. On the other end of the scale, there were relatively few persons who gave five or more “yes” answers; in the case of good experiences, there were 11 per cent of such persons, and in the case of bad ones – 5 per cent only. The close relationship between having good as well as bad exaperiences is demonstrated by the mean scores of index of good experiences related to drinking calculated for every level of the index of bad experiences, and vice versa. The picture shown by those scores is quite clear: the higher the number of positive types of experiences related to the use of alcohol, the higher also the number of negative experiences stemming from drinking. The same is also true for negative experiences: the greater their number, the more numerous also positive experiences. In conclusion it can simply be said that the drinkers who believe that alcohol drinking is rewarding are generally also aware of some unpleasant consequences which follow its use, and vice versa. A closer look at the scores of both indices revealed that on every level of the index of positive experiences, the number of those experiences exceeded markedly that of the negative ones (the only exception found is in the case of no positive experience). A partly similar picture emerges while looking at the consecutive levels of negative experiences: in the lower part of the scale, mean numbers of positive experiences surpass those of negative ones; only in the case of those respendents who reported four or more types of negative experiences, the numbers of positive experiences were smaller. Finally, the question arises how could this concurrence of good and bad experiences be explained. Or, to take a different approach, what, if anything, distinguishes the respondents who admit having many types of positive and negative experiences from those who do not happen to have them at all or who have a few only. The answer is again surprisingly simple. What seems to determine the number of experiences related to drinking is the level of alcohol consumption. In the case of the Polish drinking habits, this means practically the level of consumption of spirits. The greater the number of types of negative or positive experiences, the higher the consumption level of alcohol (spirits). In persons who reported no good or bad experiences related to drinking, mean alcohol consumption was less than a half of the average. With a rise in the number of types of positive and negative experiences stemming from drinking, the amount of alcohol consumed is also rising steeply to a level more than twice as high as the average for all drinkers. It has also to be stressed that the conusumption level associated with the same number of types of negative experiences related to drinking is higher than in the case of positive ones. Looking at this relationship at the background of the level of consumption, it can be stated that e.g. those who drunk ten to eleven litres of spirits yearly have had one type of bad and two types of good experiences related to the use of alcohol; those who drunk seventeen to twenty litres had two to three types of bad and three–four types of good experiences; and those who drunk about twenty-five litres of spirits yearly had four types of bad and five types of good experiences stemming from alcohol. The predominance of positive experiences is present all the time; however, it tends to get smaller with the increase in consumption level. The description of respondents who tended to have more good and bad experiences related to drinking corresponds strictly to that of those who are drinking more than others. Over-represented are among them: men, middle-aged, having primary education only or unfinnished secondary school, having, blue-collar jobs, describing themselves as nonbelievers or non-practising believers, having disputes and arguments with their families, with neighbours, friends, colleagues and superiors at work, having often the feeling of not enjoying the esteem they deserve. Conclusions For most Poles who drink alcohol, drinking does not seem to be associated with any particular experiences of a positive or negative value. They do not drink much, do it occasionally, probably mostly for social reasons. For those who drink more than the average and, in particular, for those who drink heavily, alcohol consumption tends to be associated with some good or bad experiences which they relate to their use of alcohol. The more they drink, the more experiences of both kinds they have. However, experiences of a rewarding nature prevail over consequences that are annoying or unpleasant. While looking at similar Scandinavian surveys, some striking differences in the incidence of types of occurrences related to drinking can be noticed. In Poland, alcohol seems to serve much more often than in the Scandinavian countries as a means of sorting out problems the drinking person has with people close to him, and in particular, in sorting out his or her problems at work. On the other hand, as far as the use of alcohol for acquiring some psychological effects is concerned (such as improving the mood, better expressing one’s feelings, or saying something one regrets afterwards), the Poles do not seem to differ much from the Scandinavians, particularly from those who are ress successful in this sphere. The Poles seem to have also more health problems related to drinking, even in comparison to those Scandinavians who drink mostly spirits, like the Icelanders.

4

Spożycie napojów alkoholowych w Polsce w 1980 r.

61%

Jasiński J.

Archiwum Kryminologii

|

1984

|

issue XI

7-92

EN

The study described in the paper and has been conceived as a continuation and partly a repetition or studies carried out in 1961 and 1962 by A. Swięcicki and then in 1968 by J. K. Falewicz. All of these studies were carried out by the Centre for Public Opinion Survey (now: Centre for Public Opinion Survey and Program Studies) of the Committee for Radio and TV in Warsaw. The instrument used in them was a questionnaire filled in by the interviewer during his interview with the respondent. The first study, conducted in February and March 1961, included a sample of a population aged 20 and over, while in the second one, which was made in October 1962, u sample aged 18 and over was included. In both studies, the assumed samples numbered 3000 respondents each, the obtained sample being 95.6 per cent and 93.6 per cent of the assumed sample respectively. The third study was carried out in March and April 1968: it included a sample of population aged 18 and over (assumed sample - 3212 respondents, obtained sample – 91.7 per cent). The present, i.e., the fourth study, was conducted in September 1980 and it included a sample of population aged 16 and over, of the assumed size of 2000 respondents; the obtained sample numbered 1972 persons, which is 98.6 per cent of the assumed one. In the case of all the four studies the deviation of the obtained sample from the assumed one was slight which permitted them to be treated as random sample of the general population. The chief aim of the 1980 study was to obtain data which would be comparable with those previously acquired and those up-to-date, concerning the distribution of consumption of alcohol among the population of Poland. The previous studies, dating back at least a dozen years, were not only old, but they were carried out in the period when general level of consumption of alcohol was approximately half of that in 1980. It seemed more difficult to answer the question to what degree the observations then made still applied to the new situation. There was a demand for some new data it last to replace the guesses made from the factual basis which, as the years went by, became more and more uncertain. In spite of the fact that the present study wbs made in the same way as the previous ones, it seems that the above aims have not been achieved. The data now obtained are not fully comparable with the previous, first of all because the 1980 survey successfully covered a considerably smaller amount of alcohol consumed in our country than those of 1961 and 1962. Undoubtedly, this was caused by various factors, the most important of which being probably the fact that the representation among the respondents of persons who drank intensively and most intensively was scantier in the present study than it had been in the studies conducted by A. Swięcicki. Consequently, the 1961-1962 and 1980 surveys concerned different categories of drinking persons, the ranges of which were not identical in both cases. As regards the scond aim of the study, which was to obtain current data on consumption of alcohol in Poland, we were unsuccessful again, as life proved to run too fast. The 1980 survey was carried out in October 1980, that is one might say at the last moment before the difficulties with alcohol supplies began, as yet unknown in our country, which resulted in regulated sale of alcoholic beverages. This caused the appearance of new phenomena as well as the aggravation of those hitherto existing, Undoubtedly, it was a new phenomenon that people started to buy alcohol not only to consume it, but also to gret rid of the rapidly devaluating money, or in order to obtain a kind of exchange value. Other new phenomena were: trade in coupons entitling one to buy alcohol, and the appearance of black-market prices of spirits produced by the State-controlled distilleries; in certain periods, these prices were twice as high as the official ones. Speaking of aggravation of the existing phenomena, we had in mind first of all the illicit distillation of liquor, the attractiveness of which increased greatly in the face of joint effect of two circumstances: the rapid increase in the price of legally distilled and imported alcohol, and the difficulties in its legal (and even illegal) purchase. It was impossible for the 1980 survey to answer the following questions: what the influence of all these phenomena on the patterns of drinking that had already been shaped before in our country was, and how these patterns were modified. It is known that people drink somewhat differently now. It may be supposed that the persons who used to consume small amounts of alcohol before and who used to drink with restraint now drink less or do not drink at all, while those who used to drink much before - even if they do drink less now, the difference is slight, the illegally distilled liquor playing a greater part in the total amount of alcohol they consume. As to this last problem, opinions are expressed according to which consumption of the illegally distilles liquor has become a much more popular experiences in the course of the ‘80s than it had been before. Finally, conjectures are made that alcohol-dependent persons, after the first period of difficulties with providing themselves with the amount of alcohol which would be adequate to their habits, in general have now found ways to satisfy their needs in this respect. It remains a guess if the above conjectures are true or not, and the same applies to suppositions concerning persistent or temporary character of the abovementioned changes in patterns of consumption of alcohol. Thus the results of the survey describe the situation as it was a few years ago as this situation undoubtedly changed later on. As the paper clearly shows, consumption of alcohol in Poland is a common phenomenon: an everyday habit for many of our fellow citizens, a regular one (though not necessarily at regular intervals)- for the majority. In a statistical-descriptive sense drinking should, therefore, be termed normal behaviour, as it appears more or less regularly in the behaviour of a majority of adult members of our society, whenever they find themselves in situations such as celebrations family, meeting friends, or official occasions. The above remarks by no means solve the question of estimation of drinking, which- in spite of its habitual character in the statistical-descriptive sense- may in some cases be recognized as most deeply pathological in the medical sense, and in the same adn frequently also in other cases- as pathological in its social expression. As regards the medical appraisal- the questionnaire did not contain a large set of questions of this kind, therefore, it was able to yield but a most scanty basis fof conjectures as to the symptoms of alcohol dependence of some of the respondents. The situation was different as regards the social appraisal of the consumption of alcohol. In order to make use of such an appraisal, an initial poblem had to be solved: what amount, frequency, and way of consuming alcohol should or should not be regarded as that included within the limits of a „social norm”. The problem is complex, for, on the one hand, the opinions as to where the limits are vary in our socjety, and, on the other hand, there are probably many such limits, depending not only on the person who is to fix them, but also on that to whom they may apply. It is generally known that in our society there are advocates of prohibition (who are of opinion that zero consumption should be the social norm), as well as propagators of „reasonable consumption” which is a term with many shades, and finally adherents of opinion that consumption of alcohol is a private matter for everyone to decide by himself (that is those who consider any kind of drinking, as well as abstinence, to come within the limits of socially approved norm). Apart from the advocates of the two extreme opinions, which provide one norm for all members of the society, others, i.e., the propagators of „reasonable” drinking tend to emploi a norm according to who the drinking person is. This finds expression in a different attitude towards drinking by men and women, tolerance towards the drinking by adults accompanied by strict disapproval in the case of the youth, different expectations as to the attitude towards alcohol drinking by members of different socio-professional groups. In this situation, with the lack of a common opinion as regards „socially normal” drinking, it seemed preferable to refrain from estimating the alcohol consumption in terms of social pathology. In a survey of alcohol consumption in which samples of population of the entire country or a smaller territory are included, it is vital how the questions about the respondents’ drinking habits are asked. In the research practice, two solutions of this problem have been provided: first, to ask about the last occasion on which the respondent drank, what he drank then, how much he drank and in what circumstances, and second, to ask about his drinking within a given, shorter or longer, period of time. It has been a tradition of Polish studies in this field to choose the first of these solutions, so this method has also been employed in the present study. The last occasion was treated as typical of the respondent’s way of drinking, and a yearly consumption was calculated for each of tchem, as well as for all persons included in the sample. As compared with the data on alcohol sale gathered in our country, it appeared that the 1980 survey covered 43 per cent of the total of consumed vodka. This percentage corresponds to that which can be found in analogous foreign studies, yeti t is considerably lower than the one obtained by A. Święcicki in his 1961 and particularly 1962 studies. The probable effect on the comparability of this studies with the present one has already been discussed above. Interest was also paid in the questionnaire to the consumption of home-made wine, which appeared to account for 39 per cent of the consumption of purchased wine covered by the study, and the consumption of „home-distilled vodka” (i.e., moonshine alcohol) which, according to the present study, accounted for 5.5 per cent of the consumption of purchased vodka. Ona may guess that the latter percentage was in reality higher, and that it has now increased even more. As is generally known, Poland is one of the countries where the general level of consumption of alcohol is medium, yet the structure of consumption is most unfavourable. Over 3/4 of the consumed alcohol is being drunk in Poland in the from of vodka and other strong drinks. A similar structure of consumption can be found in most parts of the Soviet Union, and to a smaller degree in the Scandinavian countries (except Denmark, where the dominating alcoholic beverage is beer). One of the common features of alcohol consumption is its great concentration, which means that relatively few consumers drink a share of alcohol disproportionately large to their number. As revealed by the 1980 survey, 45 per cent of the entire purchased and home-made wine covered by the study was being drunk by3.5 per cent of consumers of wine, 52 per cent of vodka was being drunk by 9 per cent of consumers of vodka, and 46 per cent of beer was being drunk by 10 per cent of consumers of beer. Taking into account that the study included a relatively small numer of persons who drink intensively and particularly those who drink most intensively, the real concentration of consumption of separate types of alcoholic beverages must be expected to be still higher in our country. The interdependence of consumption of different alcoholic beverages is closely connected with the problem of concetration of consumption. It appeared that the fact of drinking one kind of alcoholic beverage augmented the likelihood of drinking another one as well. This convergence was most marked as regards consumption of vodka and beer, as well as vodka and purchased wine (and also purchased and home-made wine); it was the least marked in the case of the consumption of home-made wine and vodka, and home-made wine and beer.Among the persons who drank at least two of the above mentioned kinds of beverages, the frequent drinking of one of them was not necessarily connected with frequent drinking of the other: on the other hand, those who drnak large amounts of one of the beverages, drank also large amounts of the other, while those who drank small amounts of one kind, drank also small amounts of the other. According to the results of our survey, teetotallers, i.e., persons who do not drink alcohol at all, constituted nearly 17 per cent of our respondents. As regards separate kinds of beverages, there were many more persons who did not drink them; yet a significant regularity appeared, which should be stressed in connection with the unfavourable structure of alcohol consumption in our country: the group of persons who never drank vodka was the least numerous, 25 per cent only, while there were 57-58 per cent of persons who never drank purchased wine and beer, and as many as 70 per cent of those who never drank home-made wine (the percentage for moonshine alcohol was 89 per cent). To repeat, not only as much as 71 per cent of alcohol was consumed in our country in the form of vodka (strong drinks) in 1980, but also it was consumed by 75 per cent of the country's population aged 16 and over. Opportunity, place, and company are the usually distinguished elements of the patterns of alcohol consumption which can be found in the society. The 1980 survey permitted to separate three such patterns (of drinking vodka or wine): family-celebration, friendly-social, drinking for purpose. According to the first one, which has been mentioned by nearly half of the respondents who drank, the opportunity for drinking was a family meeting or celebration, with many participants, the place was a private appartment, the amounts of alcohol consumed were relatively smaller, and the participants were first of all persons who drank less than the average. According to the second pattern, which was mentioned by nearly every third respondent, the opportunity was a social meeting or celebration, in which a smaller number of persons participated (as compared with the family meetings), the place was often also a private appartment, but in every fourth case a restaurant as well, more alcohol was consumed, and among the participants the persons prevailed who drank a little more than the average. According to the third pattern, drinking for purpose, mentioned by every seventh respondent, "no special occasion" was required for drinking, or drinking took place "in order to handle some business which made it necessary to drink a glass", a small group of 3-4 persons participated, the most frequently chosen place, apart from one's own apartment, was a restaurant or place of employment, a relatively largest amount of alcohol was consumed, and a majority of participants drank much more than the average. As is generally known, a particular problem in Poland is drinking at the place of employment; the Goverment has repeatedly prohibited it, only to learn that the renewal of the prohibition is apparently as timely as it is ineffective. Among the respondents employed in the State-controlled economy, two of every three persons happened to drink at work, every fourth happened to drink at least during the last month. The opportunity was usually a birthday or a name-day; yet every sixth respondent happened to drink at work last "without special reason". The information concerning the frequency of drinking and the amount of alcohol consumed permits one to separate four ways of drinking: much and often, much and seldom, little and often, little and seldom. Among the consumers of different beverages the group of persons drinking little and seldom was the most numerous, particularly as regards the consumers of wine (both purchased and home-made), to a smaller degree - the consumers of vodka (and moonshine alcohol), and to the smallest degree - the consumers of beer. Also the groups of persons drinking much and seldom were relatively numerous, apart from consumers of beer, among whom the second most numerous group was that of persons drinking little and often. Every fourth or fifth consumer of beer, every seventh consumer of vodka, every fifteenth consumer of purchased wine and every twenty-seventh consumer of home-made wine drank much and often. As regards persons who, drank any two of the above mentioned beverages, a convergence of their drinking patterns could be noticed which consisted in the following regularity: if one of the beverages was consumed according to one of the patterns, the other was generally also consumed according to the same pattern. Drinking "too much", "several consecutive days", „more often than the respondent wishes”, were considered an indicators of alcohol abuse. The persons who never happened to drink like this drank, on the whole, considerably smaller amounts of vodka than the average; those who had happened to drink like this before consumed markedly more vodka than the average; while those who have happened to drink like this at the time of the study consumed over twice as much vodka than the average. As shown by the analysis of answers to a variety of questions in the questionnaire, the amount of consumed alcohol is connected with the respondent's satisfaction with his life and his relations with others. Thus persons who were of opinion that life generally brings the people more good than evil used to drink significantly less (vodka, purchased wine, as well as beer) than those who thought the opposite. Likewise, the respondents who considered themselves frequently underestimated by their closest family, drank significantly more than those who thought that they happened, though seldom, to have been underestimated. Finally, the persons who were of the opinion that their relations with their families, neighbours, workmates, and superiors went badly, used to drink significantly more than those who had no problems in this field. The drinking persons' experiences with alcohol are both good and bad, and the tendency to study first of all, if not exclusively, the latter does not seem appropriate. In the 1980 survey questions about both kinds of experience were asked, which brought in a good deal of interesting information. Thus it appeared that the drinking of a certain amount of alcohol in the company of a given person helped to solve professional prbblems for a number of persons which was two and a half times larger than the number of those whose drinking brought about serious professional trouble. In over 2/5 of the persons examined, alcohol helped to improve their relations with close friends and relatives, while it helped every third of them to settle their own subsistence problems profitably. As for the troubles resulting from drinking, it is striking that persons problems (poor health, family or financial problems) were mentioned two or three Times more often than those connected with the respondents' participation in a broader social environment (problems with neighbours, professional problems, and those with the authorities). The above seems to prove that in the customs and climate which exists in our country, the drinking persons perceive alcohol as bringing them more good than evil. As revealed by a closer analysis of the good and bad experience involved in drinking, they usually coexisted: the more good experience the respondents had, the larger was also the amount of their bad experience, and the more they drank. One could say that the persons who used to drink much and thus fell into trouble realized at the same time that drinking brought them various forms of satisfaction and profits. This undoubtedly intensified their tendency do drink, in spite of the trouble resulting from drinking. The last problem to be discussed in the paper is the respondents' victimization by aggressive behaviour of drunken persons and by their own intoxication. As regards the first problem, it should be stressed that contacts with attempted physical aggression (a drunken person trying to stop or catch the respondent) were frequent: within the year previous to the study nearly every third respondent experienced such an event. Every ninth respondent fell victim to more serious acts of aggression ("more serious" meaning at least being physically assaulted). As regards unpleasant consequences of the respondent being intoxicated, the most frequent of them were: getting involved in a quarrel (which happened to every fourth or fifth respondent within the year previous to the study), loosing money or other valuable things (which happened to every ninth respondent). It is significant that the persons who experienced unpleasant consequences of being in the state of intoxication, drank over twice as much as on the average. The results of the study the extent, structure, and some correlates of the consumption of alcohol in our country described in the paper are an attempt at filling the gap in the studies of this problem which emerged in the '70s. Such studies should be repeated at not too, long intervals, in order to prevent the occurence of such gaps in the future

PL

The study described in the paper and has been conceived as a continuation and partly a repetition or studies carried out in 1961 and 1962 by A. Swięcicki and then in 1968 by J. K. Falewicz. All of these studies were carried out by the Centre for Public Opinion Survey (now: Centre for Public Opinion Survey and Program Studies) of the Committee for Radio and TV in Warsaw. The instrument used in them was a questionnaire filled in by the interviewer during his interview with the respondent. The first study, conducted in February and March 1961, included a sample of a population aged 20 and over, while in the second one, which was made in October 1962, u sample aged 18 and over was included. In both studies, the assumed samples numbered 3000 respondents each, the obtained sample being 95.6 per cent and 93.6 per cent of the assumed sample respectively. The third study was carried out in March and April 1968: it included a sample of population aged 18 and over (assumed sample - 3212 respondents, obtained sample – 91.7 per cent). The present, i.e., the fourth study, was conducted in September 1980 and it included a sample of population aged 16 and over, of the assumed size of 2000 respondents; the obtained sample numbered 1972 persons, which is 98.6 per cent of the assumed one. In the case of all the four studies the deviation of the obtained sample from the assumed one was slight which permitted them to be treated as random sample of the general population. The chief aim of the 1980 study was to obtain data which would be comparable with those previously acquired and those up-to-date, concerning the distribution of consumption of alcohol among the population of Poland. The previous studies, dating back at least a dozen years, were not only old, but they were carried out in the period when general level of consumption of alcohol was approximately half of that in 1980. It seemed more difficult to answer the question to what degree the observations then made still applied to the new situation. There was a demand for some new data it last to replace the guesses made from the factual basis which, as the years went by, became more and more uncertain. In spite of the fact that the present study wbs made in the same way as the previous ones, it seems that the above aims have not been achieved. The data now obtained are not fully comparable with the previous, first of all because the 1980 survey successfully covered a considerably smaller amount of alcohol consumed in our country than those of 1961 and 1962. Undoubtedly, this was caused by various factors, the most important of which being probably the fact that the representation among the respondents of persons who drank intensively and most intensively was scantier in the present study than it had been in the studies conducted by A. Swięcicki. Consequently, the 1961-1962 and 1980 surveys concerned different categories of drinking persons, the ranges of which were not identical in both cases. As regards the scond aim of the study, which was to obtain current data on consumption of alcohol in Poland, we were unsuccessful again, as life proved to run too fast. The 1980 survey was carried out in October 1980, that is one might say at the last moment before the difficulties with alcohol supplies began, as yet unknown in our country, which resulted in regulated sale of alcoholic beverages. This caused the appearance of new phenomena as well as the aggravation of those hitherto existing, Undoubtedly, it was a new phenomenon that people started to buy alcohol not only to consume it, but also to gret rid of the rapidly devaluating money, or in order to obtain a kind of exchange value. Other new phenomena were: trade in coupons entitling one to buy alcohol, and the appearance of black-market prices of spirits produced by the State-controlled distilleries; in certain periods, these prices were twice as high as the official ones. Speaking of aggravation of the existing phenomena, we had in mind first of all the illicit distillation of liquor, the attractiveness of which increased greatly in the face of joint effect of two circumstances: the rapid increase in the price of legally distilled and imported alcohol, and the difficulties in its legal (and even illegal) purchase. It was impossible for the 1980 survey to answer the following questions: what the influence of all these phenomena on the patterns of drinking that had already been shaped before in our country was, and how these patterns were modified. It is known that people drink somewhat differently now. It may be supposed that the persons who used to consume small amounts of alcohol before and who used to drink with restraint now drink less or do not drink at all, while those who used to drink much before - even if they do drink less now, the difference is slight, the illegally distilled liquor playing a greater part in the total amount of alcohol they consume. As to this last problem, opinions are expressed according to which consumption of the illegally distilles liquor has become a much more popular experiences in the course of the ‘80s than it had been before. Finally, conjectures are made that alcohol-dependent persons, after the first period of difficulties with providing themselves with the amount of alcohol which would be adequate to their habits, in general have now found ways to satisfy their needs in this respect. It remains a guess if the above conjectures are true or not, and the same applies to suppositions concerning persistent or temporary character of the abovementioned changes in patterns of consumption of alcohol. Thus the results of the survey describe the situation as it was a few years ago as this situation undoubtedly changed later on. As the paper clearly shows, consumption of alcohol in Poland is a common phenomenon: an everyday habit for many of our fellow citizens, a regular one (though not necessarily at regular intervals)- for the majority. In a statistical-descriptive sense drinking should, therefore, be termed normal behaviour, as it appears more or less regularly in the behaviour of a majority of adult members of our society, whenever they find themselves in situations such as celebrations family, meeting friends, or official occasions. The above remarks by no means solve the question of estimation of drinking, which- in spite of its habitual character in the statistical-descriptive sense- may in some cases be recognized as most deeply pathological in the medical sense, and in the same adn frequently also in other cases- as pathological in its social expression. As regards the medical appraisal- the questionnaire did not contain a large set of questions of this kind, therefore, it was able to yield but a most scanty basis fof conjectures as to the symptoms of alcohol dependence of some of the respondents. The situation was different as regards the social appraisal of the consumption of alcohol. In order to make use of such an appraisal, an initial poblem had to be solved: what amount, frequency, and way of consuming alcohol should or should not be regarded as that included within the limits of a „social norm”. The problem is complex, for, on the one hand, the opinions as to where the limits are vary in our socjety, and, on the other hand, there are probably many such limits, depending not only on the person who is to fix them, but also on that to whom they may apply. It is generally known that in our society there are advocates of prohibition (who are of opinion that zero consumption should be the social norm), as well as propagators of „reasonable consumption” which is a term with many shades, and finally adherents of opinion that consumption of alcohol is a private matter for everyone to decide by himself (that is those who consider any kind of drinking, as well as abstinence, to come within the limits of socially approved norm). Apart from the advocates of the two extreme opinions, which provide one norm for all members of the society, others, i.e., the propagators of „reasonable” drinking tend to emploi a norm according to who the drinking person is. This finds expression in a different attitude towards drinking by men and women, tolerance towards the drinking by adults accompanied by strict disapproval in the case of the youth, different expectations as to the attitude towards alcohol drinking by members of different socio-professional groups. In this situation, with the lack of a common opinion as regards „socially normal” drinking, it seemed preferable to refrain from estimating the alcohol consumption in terms of social pathology. In a survey of alcohol consumption in which samples of population of the entire country or a smaller territory are included, it is vital how the questions about the respondents’ drinking habits are asked. In the research practice, two solutions of this problem have been provided: first, to ask about the last occasion on which the respondent drank, what he drank then, how much he drank and in what circumstances, and second, to ask about his drinking within a given, shorter or longer, period of time. It has been a tradition of Polish studies in this field to choose the first of these solutions, so this method has also been employed in the present study. The last occasion was treated as typical of the respondent’s way of drinking, and a yearly consumption was calculated for each of tchem, as well as for all persons included in the sample. As compared with the data on alcohol sale gathered in our country, it appeared that the 1980 survey covered 43 per cent of the total of consumed vodka. This percentage corresponds to that which can be found in analogous foreign studies, yeti t is considerably lower than the one obtained by A. Święcicki in his 1961 and particularly 1962 studies. The probable effect on the comparability of this studies with the present one has already been discussed above. Interest was also paid in the questionnaire to the consumption of home-made wine, which appeared to account for 39 per cent of the consumption of purchased wine covered by the study, and the consumption of „home-distilled vodka” (i.e., moonshine alcohol) which, according to the present study, accounted for 5.5 per cent of the consumption of purchased vodka. Ona may guess that the latter percentage was in reality higher, and that it has now increased even more. As is generally known, Poland is one of the countries where the general level of consumption of alcohol is medium, yet the structure of consumption is most unfavourable. Over 3/4 of the consumed alcohol is being drunk in Poland in the from of vodka and other strong drinks. A similar structure of consumption can be found in most parts of the Soviet Union, and to a smaller degree in the Scandinavian countries (except Denmark, where the dominating alcoholic beverage is beer). One of the common features of alcohol consumption is its great concentration, which means that relatively few consumers drink a share of alcohol disproportionately large to their number. As revealed by the 1980 survey, 45 per cent of the entire purchased and home-made wine covered by the study was being drunk by3.5 per cent of consumers of wine, 52 per cent of vodka was being drunk by 9 per cent of consumers of vodka, and 46 per cent of beer was being drunk by 10 per cent of consumers of beer. Taking into account that the study included a relatively small numer of persons who drink intensively and particularly those who drink most intensively, the real concentration of consumption of separate types of alcoholic beverages must be expected to be still higher in our country. The interdependence of consumption of different alcoholic beverages is closely connected with the problem of concetration of consumption. It appeared that the fact of drinking one kind of alcoholic beverage augmented the likelihood of drinking another one as well. This convergence was most marked as regards consumption of vodka and beer, as well as vodka and purchased wine (and also purchased and home-made wine); it was the least marked in the case of the consumption of home-made wine and vodka, and home-made wine and beer.Among the persons who drank at least two of the above mentioned kinds of beverages, the frequent drinking of one of them was not necessarily connected with frequent drinking of the other: on the other hand, those who drnak large amounts of one of the beverages, drank also large amounts of the other, while those who drank small amounts of one kind, drank also small amounts of the other. According to the results of our survey, teetotallers, i.e., persons who do not drink alcohol at all, constituted nearly 17 per cent of our respondents. As regards separate kinds of beverages, there were many more persons who did not drink them; yet a significant regularity appeared, which should be stressed in connection with the unfavourable structure of alcohol consumption in our country: the group of persons who never drank vodka was the least numerous, 25 per cent only, while there were 57-58 per cent of persons who never drank purchased wine and beer, and as many as 70 per cent of those who never drank home-made wine (the percentage for moonshine alcohol was 89 per cent). To repeat, not only as much as 71 per cent of alcohol was consumed in our country in the form of vodka (strong drinks) in 1980, but also it was consumed by 75 per cent of the country's population aged 16 and over. Opportunity, place, and company are the usually distinguished elements of the patterns of alcohol consumption which can be found in the society. The 1980 survey permitted to separate three such patterns (of drinking vodka or wine): family-celebration, friendly-social, drinking for purpose. According to the first one, which has been mentioned by nearly half of the respondents who drank, the opportunity for drinking was a family meeting or celebration, with many participants, the place was a private appartment, the amounts of alcohol consumed were relatively smaller, and the participants were first of all persons who drank less than the average. According to the second pattern, which was mentioned by nearly every third respondent, the opportunity was a social meeting or celebration, in which a smaller number of persons participated (as compared with the family meetings), the place was often also a private appartment, but in every fourth case a restaurant as well, more alcohol was consumed, and among the participants the persons prevailed who drank a little more than the average. According to the third pattern, drinking for purpose, mentioned by every seventh respondent, "no special occasion" was required for drinking, or drinking took place "in order to handle some business which made it necessary to drink a glass", a small group of 3-4 persons participated, the most frequently chosen place, apart from one's own apartment, was a restaurant or place of employment, a relatively largest amount of alcohol was consumed, and a majority of participants drank much more than the average. As is generally known, a particular problem in Poland is drinking at the place of employment; the Goverment has repeatedly prohibited it, only to learn that the renewal of the prohibition is apparently as timely as it is ineffective. Among the respondents employed in the State-controlled economy, two of every three persons happened to drink at work, every fourth happened to drink at least during the last month. The opportunity was usually a birthday or a name-day; yet every sixth respondent happened to drink at work last "without special reason". The information concerning the frequency of drinking and the amount of alcohol consumed permits one to separate four ways of drinking: much and often, much and seldom, little and often, little and seldom. Among the consumers of different beverages the group of persons drinking little and seldom was the most numerous, particularly as regards the consumers of wine (both purchased and home-made), to a smaller degree - the consumers of vodka (and moonshine alcohol), and to the smallest degree - the consumers of beer. Also the groups of persons drinking much and seldom were relatively numerous, apart from consumers of beer, among whom the second most numerous group was that of persons drinking little and often. Every fourth or fifth consumer of beer, every seventh consumer of vodka, every fifteenth consumer of purchased wine and every twenty-seventh consumer of home-made wine drank much and often. As regards persons who, drank any two of the above mentioned beverages, a convergence of their drinking patterns could be noticed which consisted in the following regularity: if one of the beverages was consumed according to one of the patterns, the other was generally also consumed according to the same pattern. Drinking "too much", "several consecutive days", „more often than the respondent wishes”, were considered an indicators of alcohol abuse. The persons who never happened to drink like this drank, on the whole, considerably smaller amounts of vodka than the average; those who had happened to drink like this before consumed markedly more vodka than the average; while those who have happened to drink like this at the time of the study consumed over twice as much vodka than the average. As shown by the analysis of answers to a variety of questions in the questionnaire, the amount of consumed alcohol is connected with the respondent's satisfaction with his life and his relations with others. Thus persons who were of opinion that life generally brings the people more good than evil used to drink significantly less (vodka, purchased wine, as well as beer) than those who thought the opposite. Likewise, the respondents who considered themselves frequently underestimated by their closest family, drank significantly more than those who thought that they happened, though seldom, to have been underestimated. Finally, the persons who were of the opinion that their relations with their families, neighbours, workmates, and superiors went badly, used to drink significantly more than those who had no problems in this field. The drinking persons' experiences with alcohol are both good and bad, and the tendency to study first of all, if not exclusively, the latter does not seem appropriate. In the 1980 survey questions about both kinds of experience were asked, which brought in a good deal of interesting information. Thus it appeared that the drinking of a certain amount of alcohol in the company of a given person helped to solve professional prbblems for a number of persons which was two and a half times larger than the number of those whose drinking brought about serious professional trouble. In over 2/5 of the persons examined, alcohol helped to improve their relations with close friends and relatives, while it helped every third of them to settle their own subsistence problems profitably. As for the troubles resulting from drinking, it is striking that persons problems (poor health, family or financial problems) were mentioned two or three Times more often than those connected with the respondents' participation in a broader social environment (problems with neighbours, professional problems, and those with the authorities). The above seems to prove that in the customs and climate which exists in our country, the drinking persons perceive alcohol as bringing them more good than evil. As revealed by a closer analysis of the good and bad experience involved in drinking, they usually coexisted: the more good experience the respondents had, the larger was also the amount of their bad experience, and the more they drank. One could say that the persons who used to drink much and thus fell into trouble realized at the same time that drinking brought them various forms of satisfaction and profits. This undoubtedly intensified their tendency do drink, in spite of the trouble resulting from drinking. The last problem to be discussed in the paper is the respondents' victimization by aggressive behaviour of drunken persons and by their own intoxication. As regards the first problem, it should be stressed that contacts with attempted physical aggression (a drunken person trying to stop or catch the respondent) were frequent: within the year previous to the study nearly every third respondent experienced such an event. Every ninth respondent fell victim to more serious acts of aggression ("more serious" meaning at least being physically assaulted). As regards unpleasant consequences of the respondent being intoxicated, the most frequent of them were: getting involved in a quarrel (which happened to every fourth or fifth respondent within the year previous to the study), loosing money or other valuable things (which happened to every ninth respondent). It is significant that the persons who experienced unpleasant consequences of being in the state of intoxication, drank over twice as much as on the average. The results of the study the extent, structure, and some correlates of the consumption of alcohol in our country described in the paper are an attempt at filling the gap in the studies of this problem which emerged in the '70s. Such studies should be repeated at not too, long intervals, in order to prevent the occurence of such gaps in the future.

5

„Lepiej cały kufel wypić, aniżeli kroplę rozlać”. Spożycie alkoholu w świetle przysłów w językach hiszpańskim i polskim

57%

Szymański J.

Łódzkie Studia Etnograficzne

|

2023

|

vol. 62

163-180

EN

The present study examines in contrastive terms issues concerning alcohol consumption raised in collections of proverbs in two languages (Polish and Spanish in the Iberian Peninsula variety and the Mexican variant). These include the pleasure of alcohol drinking, the approval or disapproval of alcohol consumption, attitudes towards abstinence and non-drinkers, and the effects of its intake. The corpus underpinning the research consists of more than 2,900 proverbs related to food and drink, and the analytical part uses the methodology of contrastive work in the fields of paremiology and phraseology. The aim of the work is to explore the culturally rooted and culturally motivated judgements and beliefs reflected in proverbs, as well as to encourage general reflection on the values conveyed in proverbs. The conclusions of the analysis allow us to see a number of similarities between languages and cultures, but also reveal important differences in attitudes towards alcohol consumption and, in addition, the perspective from which they were created.

PL

W artykule w ujęciu kontrastywnym przeanalizowano kwestie dotyczące spożycia alkoholu poruszane w zbiorach przysłów w dwóch językach (polskim i hiszpańskim w odmianie z Półwyspu Iberyjskiego i wariancie meksykańskim). Obejmują one m.in. przyjemność płynącą z picia alkoholu, aprobatę lub dezaprobatę wobec jego spożycia, stosunek do abstynencji i ludzi niepijących, a także skutki konsumpcji. Korpus stanowiący podstawę badań składa się z ponad 2 900 przysłów z zakresu jedzenia i picia, a część analityczna wykorzystuje metodologię prac kontrastywnych w dziedzinach paremiologii i frazeologii. Celem artykułu jest zbadanie zakorzenionych w kulturze i kulturowo motywowanych sądów i przekonań odzwierciedlonych w przysłowiach, a także zachęcenie do ogólnej refleksji nad wartościami przekazywanymi w paremiach. Wnioski płynące z analizy pozwalają dostrzec szereg podobieństw między językami i kulturami, ale ukazują również istotne różnice w podejściu do konsumpcji alkoholu, a dodatkowo także perspektywę, z jakiej były tworzone.

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4 Archiwum Kryminologii

1 Łódzkie Studia Etnograficzne

1 2023

1 1992

1 1991

1 1984

1 1964

3 Jasiński J.

1 Szymański J.

1 Święcicki A.

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