Adolescent part-time work and heavy drinking in Finland

Aims To examine the relationship between part-time work and heavy drinking among Finnish adolescents. Design, setting The cross-sectional survey data (the School Health Promotion Survey, n = 47 568) were collected in classrooms in 2000. Participants Finnish lower-level secondary school students from the 8th and 9th grades, aged 14–16 years. The response rate was 82%. Measurements Work intensity, work type and the frequency of heavy drinking obtained from self-administered questionnaires. The relationship between work and heavy drinking was studied using polychotomous logistic regression models. Findings Compared with non-workers, adolescents working more than 10 hours per week had an increased risk of heavy drinking, and also the frequency of heavy drinking was connected with this intensive working. When gender, grade level, parental education, the employment status of the parents, family structure, economic situation of the family, the degree of urbanisation, parental control, steady dating, GPA and disposable allowance were adjusted for, the odds of weekly drunkenness were almost three times the odds of not reporting drunkenness among intensive workers compared with non-workers. When adjusted for other factors, some typical children’s jobs marginally decreased a likelihood of heavy drinking. Conclusions Work does seem not protect adolescents from heavy drinking. Although many relevant factors were controlled for the effect may, however, be mediated through factors not covered in the survey. Therefore, further clarification of the causal chains linking adolescent working and drinking is needed.