Table 3.
Factors explaining public opinion in relation to restrictive alcohol policy, OLS regression models.
| M1 | M2 | M3 | M4 | M5 | M6 | M7 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social characteristics | |||||||
| Gender: female = 1 | +7*** | +6*** | +6*** | +5** | |||
| Age: young (< 30 years) = 1 | –1 | –2 | –2 | 2 | |||
| Age: old (> 65) = 1 | +1 | +1 | +0 | +2 | |||
| Household income: high = 1 | +2 | +3 | +4* | +5** | |||
| Household income: low = 1 | –2 | –3 | –3 | –4 | |||
| Education: high = 1 | +7*** | +9*** | +7*** | +5** | |||
| “Class”: blue-collar home = 1 | –1 | –2 | –2 | –2 | |||
| “Class”: business owner/farmer = 1 | –8** | –7** | –8** | –4 | |||
| Geography: village, rural area =1 | +1 | +0 | +1 | –0 | |||
| Geography: city =1 | +0 | +1 | +1 | –1 | |||
| Nationality: grown up abroad = 1 | –7** | –11*** | –7* | –4 | |||
| Religiosity: prays to God, scale 0 (never)–1 (several times per week) | +10*** | +7** | +5* | +4* | |||
| Alcohol consumption | |||||||
| Alcohol consumption frequency: scale 0 (never)–1 (several times per week) | –11*** | –15*** | –8** | –8** | |||
| Alcohol consumption: abstainer = 1 | +12*** | +13*** | +7** | +6* | |||
| Knowledge, perception, experience | |||||||
| Own experience of someone close drinking too much = 1 | +2 | +2 | +1 | ||||
| Knowledge about alcohol: index scale 0 (low)–1 (high) | +18*** | +15*** | +10* | ||||
| Problem perception of alcohol consumption – in private life: scale 0–1 | –13*** | –9** | –9*** | ||||
| Problem perception of alcohol consumption – in society: scale 0–1 | –33*** | –30*** | –18*** | ||||
| Ideology | |||||||
| Left–right ideology: subjective scale 0 (left)– 1 (right) | –13*** | –14*** | |||||
| Alcohol liberalism: scale 0 (restrictive)–1 (liberal) | –38*** | –30*** | |||||
| Constant | 58*** | 67*** | 71*** | 87*** | 61*** | 64*** | 84*** |
| Adj R 2 | .05 | .05 | .14 | .24 | .11 | .20 | .34 |
| N | 1.588 | 1.601 | 1.230 | 1.452 | 1.579 | 1.198 | 1.141 |
Source: National Society, Opinion, Media survey, 2016.
Note. OLS = ordinary least squares. The dependent variable is an index of the mean value of two questions regarding the most important political instruments: “lowering taxes on alcohol” and “allowing strong beer, wine and spirits to be sold in grocery shops” (i.e., abolishing Systembolaget’s retail monopoly). The index is coded 0 (lowering taxes and abolishing the monopoly are both very bad proposals) to 100 (both very good proposals). All independent variables are coded 0–1 and presented in Table 1. Adj R 2-values are written in italics.
*p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.