Alert on bid to live ‘lifestyle’

Press, 9 August 1988, Page 37

Alert on bid to live ‘lifestyle’

PA Wellington Young women are turning into alcoholics from attempting to live the “sophisticated lifestyle,” a Salvation Army survey says. Mr Don Smith, a psychologist employed by the Salvation Army to monitor its Bridge programme for alcoholics, said that although the number of female alcoholics — about 15 per cent — was up only slightly, an increasing number of women in their 20s and 30s were coming to the Salvation Army for help. Younger women tended to drink more alcohol than older women, he said. It was socially acceptable for them and was seen as part of the sophisticated lifestyle. The move towards equality and equal opportunities had meant an increase in consumption for some younger women. Advertising too had played a part by targeting the young female market, which previously did not consume much alcohol. The problem was made

worse, Mr Smith said, because women tended to drink wine or heady spirit-based drinks. Wine and spirits were also more intoxicating than beer, the drink most preferred by men. Concern about drink and young females centred on two facts: women were smaller than men and so it took much less alcohol to cause physical. damage, and alcohol could cause brain damage in babies born to heavy-drinking mothers. Mr Smith said he was concerned the problem would get worse with the proposed legislation to liberalise liquor laws. Overseas studies showed that there was a direct link between alcohol consumption and addiction, he said. The longer drinking hours proposed would increase consumption. “Young women drink because it is the so-called sophisticated thing to do. My hope is that the new emphasis on health food and drink will help balance this influence. I think the moral view (of drink) is limited,Mr Smith said.