INTERNATIONAL JOURNALOF BEHAVIORALMEDICINE, 6(2), 135-149 Copyright 91999, LawrenceErlbaumAssociates, Inc. Reasons for Drinking in Relation to Problem Drinking Behavior in a Sample of Japanese High School Students Kazuhito Yokoyama, Mariko Nishikitani, and Shunichi Araki To clarify reasons for drinking in relation to problem drinking behavior, 494 male stu- dents, aged 15 to 18 years old and attending high schools in Tokyo, Japan, were exam- ined by self-rating questionnaires including the Kurihama Alcoholism Screening Test (KAST). Three hundred and forty-two students (69%) completed the question- naires, of whom 143 indicated that they were current drinkers of alcohol (42% of re- spondents). Of the 143, 16 (11%) reported, through the KAST, experience of problem drinking behavior. A factor analysis of 36 reasons for drinking identified 5 factors: Escapism, Sociability, Tension Reduction, Acting Like a Man, and Enjoyment/Home. A logistic regression analysis showed that drinking because of Escapism, Sociability, and Tension Reduction was significantlyrelated to problem drinking behavior. Also, there was significantcorrelation between the 3 factors and the number of KAST items experienced by the 143 respondents. Our findings suggest that the factors of Escap- ism, Sociability, and Tension Reduction lead to problem drinking in Japanese high school students. Key words: reasons for drinking, problem drinking, high school students, escapism, sociability, tension reduction Previous studies have identified several reasons for drinking in college or univer- sity student samples. The two most consistently reported reasons are escapism (or KazuhitoYokoyama,MarikoNishikitani and Shunichi Araki,Department of PublicHealth and Oc- cupational Medicine,GraduateSchool of Medicine,The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. We thank Mr. A. Scott Voorhees, M.E.Sc., U.S. Environment ProtectionAgency,who is a visiting fellow of the Departmentof PublicHealth and Occupational Medicine,Graduate School of Medicine /Faculty of Medicine,The University of Tokyo, for lookingover the Englishgrammarof the article. Correspondenceconcerningthis article should be addressed to Kazuhito Yokoyarna,Department of PublicHealth and Occupational Medicine, GraduateSchoolof Medicine/Faculty of Medicine,The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo I 13--0033,Japan.