Education, Alcohol Use and Abuse Among Young Adults in Britain

In this article we explore the relationship between education and alcohol consumption. We examinewhether the probability of abusing alcohol differs across educational groups. We use data from the BritishCohort Study, a longitudinal study of one week’s birth in Britain in 1970. Measures of alcohol abuseinclude alcohol consumption above NHS guidelines, daily alcohol consumption and problem drinking.Higher educational attainment is associated with increased odds of daily alcohol consumption and problemdrinking. The relationship is stronger for females than males. Individuals who achieved high test scores inchildhood are at a significantly higher risk of abusing alcohol across all dimensions. Our results alsosuggest that educational qualifications and academic performance are associated with the probability ofbelonging to different typologies of alcohol consumers among women while this association is not presentin the case of educational qualifications and is very weak in the case of academic performance amongmales.