6

I've recently come across an article that implies that the popularity of wine in conjunction with parenting is resulting in more mothers developing alcohol problems:

“So many women I know started drinking more after they have kids,” said Stefanie Wilder-Taylor, the blogger and author who has admitted publicly to an alcohol addiction. She was the unofficial keynote of the event, hosted by The Century Council to discuss their new report on women and drunken-driving.

The article claims:

Wine, preferably white, sometimes sparkling, is something of a given when mothers get together these days.

also

It’s the ‘mommy culture’ now. It’s dropping the kids off at ballet to go across the street to meet a friend for a few glasses of wine… It reconnects us to our fun old selves and it’s how we deal with the stress

The focus of the article is about the role of alcohol in modern mothering, and its negative influences in particular. Much of the material revolves around one specific blogger/author who discovered that she had developed an alcohol problem due to her reliance upon it as a coping mechanism for the stress of being a parent, and her feeling that this was a growing trend.

Indeed, a review of "mommy blogs" does turn up some notable examples of the prominence of alcohol, particularly wine: here, here and here.

As an attempt to provide supporting evidence, the article also makes the claim:

The study found that the number of women arrested for impaired driving jumped 36 percent in the last decade. Women now account for almost a quarter of drunken driving arrests.

Followed by:

The report does not delve much into the current climate of drinking while parenting beyond noting that the profile of the “average” female arrestee is in her 30s, better educated and more likely than male drunken drivers (or the general population) to suffer from anxiety and/or depression. In other words, she looks like many mothers.

Have there been any studies showing a growing trend in an increase of the rate of alcohol abuse in mothers? As I expect this to vary considerably due to culture, any study showing a general increase of alcohol abuse in mothers regardless of geographic area would be acceptable (although one covering North America would be preferred, as it is the area relevant to the article).

Beofett
  • 9,363
  • 4
  • 57
  • 84
  • @Nico I'm having trouble rephrasing the title in a way that captures what the article is implying. Do you think "Can the current trends in 'mommy social culture' be tied to an increase in alcohol abuse?" works better? – Beofett Dec 07 '11 at 17:16
  • This questions seems to be awfully localized. Not localized as in "vote to close", but as in "I've never heard of this phenomenon in Sweden". Is this a U.S. specific thing? – Zano Dec 08 '11 at 00:16
  • @Zano I suspect it is local to the US. – Beofett Dec 08 '11 at 00:33
  • Are you looking for an increase in alcohol abuse in mothers over time (i.e. more mothers relative to the general population are alcoholics now than in 1960), or for alcohol abuse correlating with becoming a mother (i.e. alcoholism jumps X% within a year of having a child)? –  Dec 08 '11 at 09:52
  • 4
    @Zano: it's local to US in that sense, that only in US media would link a cup of vine a day with alcoholism. – vartec Dec 08 '11 at 12:50
  • @JoeWreschnig I would say an increase in alcohol abuse in mothers over time would be sufficient to support the general claim of the article. – Beofett Dec 08 '11 at 13:00
  • 2
    @Vartec I really don't know where you are reading "a cup of wine a day = alcoholism", but that is not stated in anything I wrote, or even linked. The only mention of quantity is the blogger who stated she had more than 2 martinis (2 plus one "topped off") right before driving, then woke up with a hangover. Admittedly, this does not sound like an alcoholic to me (in my limited experience, most alcoholics would require more before a hangover), but then, that is part of why I am skeptical of the claim. – Beofett Dec 08 '11 at 13:01
  • @Beofett: the article suggests that "third glass of wine" is already alcoholism, while in fact average person wouldn't even be legally impaired. Now, the dangerous part is that these women take all kinds of anti-psychotic drugs. But that's covered in another Skeptics question: http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/5234/are-antipsychotic-drugs-vastly-overused-in-the-us – vartec Dec 08 '11 at 13:19
  • 1
    @Vartec I think you are misreading that. The quantity of alcohol is not the reason the individual (not the article) felt that she had an alcohol problem. Rather, she felt that making the (impaired) decision to drive her children while under the influence indicated a problem. Alcohol abuse is not about quantity or tolerance, but rather negative impact on your life and the people around you caused by your drinking habits and decisions. I will change the sole reference in my question to alcoholism to reflect abuse to fix my consistency issue, however. – Beofett Dec 08 '11 at 13:24
  • @Beofett: so the fact that some random blogger felt, that she has alcohol problem is proof of what exactly? (besides the fact that US media will blow anything out of proportion with little or no reason at all) – vartec Dec 08 '11 at 13:37
  • @Vartec This is the skeptics site. If I felt it was proof of anything, then I wouldn't be skeptical of the claim, would I? – Beofett Dec 08 '11 at 13:40
  • @Beofett: the thing is, that it's not a claim at all. It's a rant from a person that has similar views on alcohol, as Iranian ayatollahs. – vartec Dec 08 '11 at 13:43
  • 2
    let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/1942/discussion-between-beofett-and-vartec) – Beofett Dec 08 '11 at 13:46
  • 6
    _Alcohol abuse_ is any continued use of alcohol despite negative consequences; the quantity does not matter. If one glass of wine is enough to give you a hangover, and you feel the psychological need to drink a glass of wine a day, then that's alcohol abuse. The term for imbibing massive quantities of alcohol is _binge drinking_, and that's not even alcohol abuse, if it happens in isolation. (Medical _alcoholism_ is something else entirely as well.) –  Dec 08 '11 at 14:42
  • I would also wonder if there has been any actual change in behavior. It's not like our mothers, grandmothers, and so forth didn't drink. My grandmother told me she was supposed to drink a glass of wine a day while pregnant, to keep her relaxed; this recommendation seems to be coming back (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-486780/Now-pregnant-women-told-It-IS-safe-drink-daily-glass-wine.html) – mmr Dec 08 '11 at 14:55
  • I wouldn't know, mmr. My parents never saw the need to hover over me wherever I went, with or without a glass of wine in hand. They trusted me to make my own way home from playing with the neighbours' kids for example... – jwenting Dec 09 '11 at 12:41
  • @vartec Alcoholism (an addiction to alcohol) is not usually defined by quantity of consumption, but by "abuse" (usage causes negative life repercussions is the typical definition, thus you have *instances of abuse*, contrasted with the term "alcohol abuse") and "loss of control" (literally cannot resist the urge to use and will go to extraordinary lengths to use). User792's definitions are a bit mixed and outdated. –  May 21 '20 at 21:43

1 Answers1

-3

Let's consider the article carefully.

First let's note that the article is in the Lifestyle section. Such articles are not expected to be up to the journalistic standards of the news section of a newspaper. They are essentially entertainment.

The article states several things as 'fact' without backing them up in any way. Phrases like "modern parents’ embrace of wine-accompanied playdates" are stated without backup, except for abstract references to Facebook and Twitter postings (the links behind those words just go to the homepage of the service - don't bother following them).

The bulk of the article deals exclusively with the writings of Stefanie Wilder-Taylor. Wilder-Taylor describes herself as "writer and comedian", and her only publications are books of humour (ironically humour related to parenting). She appears in this article because of her decision to come out as an alcoholic parent, and because she collects stores from other alcoholic parents on her blog.

My point here is that everything we have seen is anecdotal. Wilder-Taylor appears to be an intelligent, honest, responsible person doing a great job in recounting the dangers of alcoholism, especially while parenting. But nothing she has written in any way indicates that alcoholism (or even drinking) among parents is rising. To her, and plenty of others, it is a significant problem, and she is entirely right to talk about it. But we can't assume that the issue is on the rise just because of that. Wilder-Taylor certainly implies that her alcoholic intake was increased by the 'mommy' events she attended, and that may well be true in her case. Other people may find that work, or sporting events, or loneliness, are their trigger.

As a final point, the one scientific study quoted looks at the rise of drink-driving convictions among women, but says nothing whatsoever about the parental status of those women.

DJClayworth
  • 57,419
  • 26
  • 209
  • 195
  • 1
    @Sklivvz: it is correct answer to this particular question (which IMHO isn't notable claim in the first place). – vartec Dec 09 '11 at 09:42
  • indeed, he references his answer which consists of mentioning the lack of references in the claim by linking to the claim. – jwenting Dec 09 '11 at 12:38
  • 3
    While I agree that the evidence in the article is not convincing, if lack of proof in the original claim were sufficient answer, there would be no [point to this site in the first place](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/faq). The actual claim could be easily debunked with statistics, if it is based on a false premise. Absence of evidence is absence of evidence, not proof. If pointing out a claim was based strictly on "anecdotal" evidence, [this question](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/4498/does-torture-work-well-as-an-interrogation-technique) and many others would be offtopic. – Beofett Dec 09 '11 at 16:10
  • 3
    I concur with @Beofett. This is not an answer. It's a good argument in favor of being skeptical of the claim being made, but it does not actually answer the question. – Borror0 Dec 09 '11 at 19:52