Why do young people drink? How can binge drinking be avoided and moderate drinking be encouraged?
“Drinking is our modern way of bonding”: results from a qualitative study suggest that interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm among young people should focus on the social consequences and image-related concerns of excessive drinking which appear to be stronger motivators for young people than health concerns.
In recent years, important changes in the culture of alcohol use in the UK and other European countries were observed and an increasing government and media concern about the health and social consequences of excessive alcohol consumption among young people, with binge drinking episodes and public drunkenness was the focus of attention. Binge drinkingBinge drinking (consuming rapidly four or more alcoholic drinks over a short period of time) has bee... and drunkenness are part of the social lives of many young people. Public health campaigns to discourage heavy drinking among young people can only be effective if the target audience is exposed to and comprehends the key messages. To target appropriately, it is important to identify young people’s motives for drinking or not drinking.
For this purpose, in-depth interviews with 13-25 year old female (41) and male (34) participants about their motives of drinking and not drinking, social situations where being a (non) drinker was beneficial and which messages had an impact on them were carried out. Focus group discussions examined similar motives and personal beliefs about alcohol, images of alcohol use and examples of health promotion campaigns. ie. “If you were designing a moderate drinking campaign, what would you do?”
From the data, four themes emerged.
- Social motives for drinking:
Participants described an expectation to drink alcohol at societal level and within peer groups. In order to avoid stigmatization, some participants explained their decision to start drinking. Drinking was clearly related to image and reputation (“being cool” in the younger age group). Alcohol helped to lower inhibitions and helped friendship and bonding processes (“drinking is our modern way of bonding”). Suffering through a hangover with friends was another way to express and strengthen friendship. Hangovers as a consequence of excessive drinking may be celebrated in real life and online as evidence of a good night out with friends.
- Motives for moderate drinking – threats to image and pleasure
One negative aspect about excessive alcohol use about which respondents were concerned was loss of image or reputation. Some participants suggested that campaigns to encourage moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages may have a greater success, if they focus on weight and body image concerns rather than health aspects of intoxication. Also, drinking too much and being an unwanted burden on friends was considered incompatible with social drinking and could potentially influence drinking behavior.
- Possible interventions
Across all ages, there was a lack of concern about the long-term health consequences of excessive drinking. Concerns about safety were more influential than health concerns. Intoxication as such was not considered bad but participants were concerned about intoxication where individuals were at greater risk of violence or sexual assault. Public health campaigns face a difficult task in challenging the belief that drunken behavior is fun and funny.
- Messages and media
Here attention was focused on participants’ beliefs about how to best deliver alcohol harm reduction interventions. They suggested that rather than providing alcohol-focused websites for people to visit, more effective would be the exposure to alcohol-related messages on social networking sites. The respondents also were clear that not only the message or the medium of delivery but also the tone was important. Rather than telling individuals not to drink or to limit their consumption, public health campaigns should provide advice and leave choices about alcohol consumption to individuals.
Multiples motives for drinking were given by the interviewees with a particular focus on social motives, such as caring for drunk friends, being cared for when drunk and suffering through a hangover. The importance of social motives for drinking suggests that it may be productive to encourage young people to be good drinkers and not to drink in ways that spoil friends’ enjoyment. Such approaches would enable health promotion to focus on pleasure rather than on negative outcomes. The appropriate tone was also important in the messages, often times campaigns failed to provide the right balance between providing information and not being perceived as patronizing or preaching. Talking to young people to understand their perspectives on alcohol interventions is important to allow better targeting of health messages
More effective targeting of messages to discourage excessive drinking among young people must pay attention to the message focus: social factors and image-related concerns are likely to be stronger motivators than health concerns. The must use the appropriate tone: message should be strong enough to motivate. Attention should be also given to the medium: multiple message delivered via different media may be most effective way to address the diversity among young people.
de Visser R.O. et al, ‘Drinking is our modern way of bonding’: Young people’s beliefs about interventions to encourage moderate drinking, Psychology & Health 2013, Vol 28, 12, 1460-1480.