risk for greater alcohol exposure and a resultant escalation of drinking, or it may be protective and decreases drinking. Such conditions can occur at the social network, community, and societal levels, but identification of plausible mediating mechanisms from higher-order (community or societal) factors to changes in alcohol consumption is needed. Social control mechanisms, compared to social triggers, may offer a strong theoretical link to changes in opportunities to use alcohol. Studies of adolescent psychiatric symptoms63 and alcohol use64, for example, point to intermediate social control influences (parental supervision and peer delinquency) that help explain the triggering effects of poverty and neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage.
