Alcohol brand preferences of underage youth: results from a pilot survey among a national sample.

This study is the first investigation to explore the alcohol brand preferences of underage youth via a national survey. The authors conducted a pilot study of a new, Internet-based alcohol brand survey with 108 youth aged 16 to 20 years who were recruited from an existing panel and had consumed alcohol in the past month. The authors ascertained respondents' consumption of each of 380 alcohol brands during the past 30 days, including which brands of alcohol were consumed during heavy drinking episodes. The findings suggest that, despite the wide variety of alcohol brands consumed by older adolescents in this study, the volume of alcohol consumed is concentrated among a relatively small number of brands. Accurate measurements of alcohol brand preferences will enable important new research into the factors that influence youth drinking behavior. This study establishes the feasibility and validity of a new methodology to determine patterns of brand-specific alcohol consumption among underage drinkers.