Alienation, Self-Esteem and Attitudes toward Drinking in High-School Students

Abstract

The Williams Attitudes toward Temperate and Irresponsible Use of Alcohol Scale, a modified version of the Dean Alienation Scale, and a measure of self-esteem (the Feelings of Inadequacy subscale of the Janis and Field Personality Questionnaire) were administered to all students (256 boys, 270 girls) of a rural high school located in a predominantly Protestant northern New England resort area. Favorability of attitudes to irresponsible use of alcohol was positively associated with alienation (r = .19) but bore no association to self-esteem (r = .04). Two alienation subscales, powerlessness and normlessness, were related to attitudes toward irresponsible use (r = .20 and .25, respectively), but the 3rd subscale, social isolation, was not. Alienation and self-esteem were negatively related (r = .44). There were no sex or age differences among the correlations, although boys held significantly more favorable attitudes to both temperate and irresponsible use of alcohol than girls; boys also rated themselves higher than girls on self-esteem.