title: Scoring the Strengths and Weaknesses of Underage Drinking Laws in the United States.
abstract: Several studies have examined the impact of a number of minimum legal drinking age 21 (MLDA-21) laws on underage alcohol consumption and alcohol-related crashes in the United States. These studies have contributed to our understanding of how alcohol control laws affect drinking and driving among those who are under age 21. However, much of the extant literature examining underage drinking laws use a "Law/No law" coding which may obscure the variability inherent in each law. Previous literature has demonstrated that inclusion of law strengths may affect outcomes and overall data fit when compared to "Law/No law" coding. In an effort to assess the relative strength of states' underage drinking legislation, a coding system was developed in 2006 and applied to 16 MLDA-21 laws. The current article updates the previous endeavor and outlines a detailed strength coding mechanism for the current 20 MLDA-21 laws.
authors.affiliation: Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation 11720 Beltsville Drive, Suite 900, Calverton, Maryland 20705.
authors.forename: James C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Fell
authors.affiliation: Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation 11720 Beltsville Drive, Suite 900, Calverton, Maryland 20705.
authors.forename: Sue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation 11720 Beltsville Drive, Suite 900, Calverton, Maryland 20705.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scherer
authors.affiliation: Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation 11720 Beltsville Drive, Suite 900, Calverton, Maryland 20705.
authors.forename: Deborah A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.affiliation: Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation 11720 Beltsville Drive, Suite 900, Calverton, Maryland 20705.
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Romano