Despite evidence that alcohol misuse has been having an increasingly detrimental effect on adolescent
wellbeing in Russia in recent years this phenomenon has been little researched. Using data from 2112
children from the Arkhangelsk Social and Health Assessment (SAHA) 2003, this study examined which
factors acted as ‘risk’ or ‘protective’ factors for adolescent binge drinking within three domains we termed
the ‘family environment’, the ‘alcohol environment’ and ‘deviant behaviour’. The results showed that in the
presence of comparatively moderate levels of binge drinking among both boys and girls, being able to access
alcohol easily, being unaware of the risks of binge drinking and having peers who consumed alcohol
increased the risk of adolescent binge drinking — as did playing truant, smoking and marijuana use, while
parental warmth was protective against binge drinking for girls. Our finding that risk and protective factors
occur across domains suggests that any interventions targeted against adolescent binge drinking may need to
simultaneously focus on risk behaviours in different domains, while at the same time, broader social policy
should act to limit the availability of alcohol to adolescents in Russia more generally.