Binge Drinking is a constant problem behaviour in adolescents across Europe. However, epidemiological data on alcohol consumption of adolescents with different migration backgrounds are rare.

Create insight on alcohol consumption patterns in adolescents with different migration backgrounds living in Germany.

In the years 2007/2008, a representative written survey of N = 44,610 students in the 9th grade of different school types in Germany was carried out (net sample). The return rate of questionnaires was 88% regarding all students whose teachers respectively school directors had agreed to participate in the study. 27.4% of the adolescents surveyed have a migration background whereby the Turkish culture is the largest group followed by adolescents who emigrated from former Soviet Union states.

More than half (57.4%) of the German 9th-graders engaged in binge drinking at least once during the 4 weeks prior to the survey. Students with migration background of the former Soviet Union showed mainly similar drinking behaviour like German adolescents (56.2%). Adolescents with Turkish roots engaged in binge drinking less frequently than adolescents of German descent (23.6%). However, in those adolescents who consumed alcohol in the last 4 weeks, binge drinking is very prominent across cultural backgrounds.

Common expectations concerning drinking behaviour of adolescents of certain cultural backgrounds (‘migrants with Russian background drink more’/‘migrants from Islamic imprinted countries drink less’) are only partly affirmed. Possibly, the degree of acculturation to the permissive German alcohol culture plays a role here.