What prompts Aboriginal Australians to abstain from alcohol

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-07-24 03:00

Australia; NSW; VIC; QLD; WA; NT

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Aboriginal Australians are much more likely to have abstained from drinking alcohol all their lives if they speak an Aboriginal language at home, according to Australian researchers. The team say Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are more likely to not drink alcohol compared to the general Australian population, and they surveyed 775 remote and urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in remote and urban South Australia to investigate why this might be. The researchers say older and unemployed survey respondents were more likely to be non-drinkers, and those who spoke Aboriginal languages at home were three times more likely to have never drunk alcohol. Health and family were common reasons cited for not drinking, the researchers say, and while a few said they had experienced stress from people around them drinking, the majority did not mention any harms from other people drinking.