Given that alcohol consumption was widely believed to be a sociable behaviour by this sample of older adults it is unsurprising that they expressed strong social influences on drinking over time. In particular, changes to usual social activities, shifting responsibilities and personal relationships contributed to participants’ explanations for their behaviour change.
These social factors can be grouped into three broad categories: changes in social activity, drinking as a social activity, and spousal influence.
8.7.1 Changes in social activity
Participants talked about how their social activities had changed over time. For some people the changes were gradual whilst others could identify one or more specific reasons for modifying their social activities. Where social activities involved alcohol consumption, a change in attendance could subsequently affect overall level of drinking. For example, one participant used to play bingo with his sons-in-law in the club on a Sunday afternoon and enjoyed drinking with them during the game, but over time they stopped going to bingo together because of competing family priorities, and so his alcohol consumption declined. Another participant used to go social dancing every week with her husband but when he died she stopped going:
We used to go dancing once a week and I’d have two or three vodka and tonics, that was it when he died… everything stopped. (F7)
Whilst changes in social activity often exerted a downward pressure on long-term alcohol consumption, some participants did report increases in alcohol consumption as a result of changes in their social activity that were related to changes in their familial role. In particular, reduced childcare responsibilities in older age increased the opportunity to engage in different social activities that might include drinking alcohol, for example:
I: What would you say the main reasons are for your increased drinking?
P: … I think the social aspect has changed, of what you, ‘cos when you’ve got young children you don’t do the same social things do you, so I think the social aspects have changed, that you go out with friends without having children. So you’re not looking after children and chasing after children, so I suppose it’s around the change in maturity and, you know, the social aspects of going out without kids. (F1)
This was a view expressed by older women in the sample but not older men. In the period before having children these women described very low-level alcohol consumption, in part due to the unaffordability of alcohol and the low priority given to alcohol consumption within daily life. This low level of consumption was maintained throughout the period of parental
responsibility because the requirements of looking after children were not commensurate with drinking alcohol. Once children had grown up responsibilities changed and it was possible to engage in social activities involving alcohol consumption, facilitated by increased affluence that meant alcohol was more affordable and changed beliefs about the role of alcohol in daily life.
8.7.2 Drinking as a social activity
There was a group of interviewees for whom drinking alcohol at a pub or club was their main social activity. This group comprised older men from across the socioeconomic spectrum.
These men reported few, if any, social activities they enjoyed other than visiting the pub or club on a regular basis. Drinking establishments were viewed as a good place to ‘interact with blokes… banter with the lads’ (M2), a place where ‘there’s always plenty of people there to talk to’ (M4). Alcohol consumption was stable among this group of men, except following exposure to tangible negative health or social consequences of drinking. For example, one man described a negative interaction between alcohol and his medication that incentivised a reduction by half in alcohol consumption to prevent a repeat occurrence.
This pattern of consumption was usually expressed as volitional behaviour; however, peer pressure did also influence frequency of alcohol consumption:
It was there and it was convenient and there was a, I mean if I didn’t go out the bloody phone would ring ‘we’re waiting for you, are you coming over?’… You can’t make an excuse because they know that there’s no reason you can’t go. (M6)
These pressures lead to maintenance of a high level of alcohol consumption despite having a heart attack: although M6 reportedly stopped drinking during rehabilitation he described quickly returning to this pattern of heavy drinking once his (formal) rehabilitation programme was complete. This highlights a tension experienced between enjoyable, volitional social activity and social pressure to behave differently. Whilst men in this group described this form of drinking behaviour as a personal choice, for some there was an element of social pressure to the frequency of drinking occasions or number of alcoholic beverages consumed.
8.7.3 Spousal influence
Social opportunity to drink was influenced by partners drinking, surveillance, and spousal relationship. There was a view that alcohol consumption had changed over time as a result of changes in the drinking habits of a husband or wife, or to influence another’s drinking:
My wife has cut back on her drinking and quite often if she’s not having a drink I’ll say well I’ll not bother either. (M10)
I’ve gone out with me ex7 for a meal at dinnertime and to stop her having a drink with a meal we’ve had a soft drink, both of us, and it’s not worried me. (M1)
This illustrates the effect that both current and past partners drinking can have on ones own drinking; however, this influence varied from couple to couple. Whilst some of the older adults described enjoying a bottle of wine with their partner on a regular basis and not often drinking alone, others highlighted the differences between their drinking and that of their partner:
I have a glass of wine occasionally… I don’t drink as much as my husband ‘cos he’s a beer drinker. (F1)
If we’re sat in here together yes he’ll probably share a bottle with me, but he does go out and play snooker so he’ll probably have a couple of pints there. (F8)
Among older married men there was a view that their wives monitored their alcohol consumption to ensure that they were not drinking too much. This surveillance was described variously, for example one man seemed perturbed by his wife’s concern stating ‘she watches me like a hawk’ (M8) whilst another provided an explanation for monitoring consumption
‘she’s also been keeping an eye on diet and calories’ (M10) that suggested he was content to have his alcohol consumption measured. This surveillance acted to prevent any sustained increase in drinking, but was not described as a factor that lead to a decline in consumption.
The third spousal influence on alcohol consumption was the spousal relationship. A poor spousal relationship, characterised by a lack of understanding between husband and wife, resulted in a gradual increase in alcohol consumption over time:
He drives me, he seems to be driving me *to drink+… that’s how bad my marriage has got. (F4)
Drinking was used as a coping mechanism to manage a difficult marital situation in which the participant was trapped because of her financial circumstances. Whilst only one participant reported a poor spousal relationship, this example illustrates the use of alcohol as a support mechanism by older adults during periods of personal difficulty.
In contrast to a poor spousal relationship resulting in increased alcohol consumption, the impact of heavy alcohol consumption on a partner or spouse was cited as a motivation to reduce alcohol consumption. One man described a drinking habit he developed in his later working years of spending Sunday afternoons in the pub:
7 M1 divorced his wife because she was an alcoholic but he still enjoyed spending some time with her and she lived on the same estate and so they socialized together.
The shifts that I used to do got me home about half past one, two o’clock on a Sunday and I used to go down or into the pub and I wouldn’t come home ‘til seven or eight o’clock at night so I was absolutely… and she used to go potty. And really I mean, at the end of the day I stopped it because… well it went on for eighteen months it went on for, probably a bit longer than that, but I mean I got, I got a lot of grief and then I sort of thought about it and I thought well it’s not fair on her, nacks her Sundays up. (M6) Ultimately the social benefits of this higher-level drinking habit were outweighed by the relationship costs resulting in a change in behaviour.