Legitimizing and negotiating abstinence: Young adults’ narratives about practicing situational and long term abstinence in Denmark

"They start on the zero-alcohol and they wanna try the real thing": Parents' views on zero-alcohol beverages and their use by adolescents

OBJECTIVE

Zero-alcohol beverages containing 0.0-0.5% alcohol by volume may offer public health benefits if individuals use them to substitute for alcohol-containing products, thereby reducing alcohol use. There are, however, concerns that zero-alcohol beverages may encourage adolescents' earlier interest in alcohol and increase exposure to alcohol company branding. As this poses a challenge for parents, we studied parents' views on zero-alcohol beverages and their provision to adolescents.

METHODS

We interviewed n=38 parents of 12-17-year-olds and used reflexive thematic analysis to interpret interview data.

RESULTS

Parents considered zero-alcohol beverages to be 'adult beverages' that potentially supported reduced adult drinking but were unnecessary for adolescents. Parents were concerned that adolescent zero-alcohol beverage use could normalise alcohol consumption and be a precursor to alcohol initiation. There was a potential conflict between moderate provision in 'appropriate' contexts, and potential benefits, which were each supported by some parents. Uncertainty on health qualities was also reported.

CONCLUSIONS

Parents reported conflicting and cautious views on zero-alcohol beverage provision to adolescents.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH

As evidence on the impacts of zero-alcohol beverage availability develops, parent-targeted messages highlighting the potential risk of normalisation of alcohol use for young people could be developed, in conjunction with broader policy responses.

Negotiating situational abstinence and moderation: a study of regular and heavy-drinking young Nigerians

Studies that have examined young people's drinking behaviour, particularly how they abstain from alcohol or drink lightly and their motivations, have focused on Western contexts. Currently, studies on how and why young Africans abstain from alcohol or drink moderately are lacking. Therefore, there is a need to examine young people's drinking behaviours/practices on the continent to facilitate health promotion interventions. This study, which uses qualitative data elicited from 53 participants, explores how young Nigerian men and women who consume alcohol and drink heavily enact and negotiate abstinence and moderate drinking and the factors that motivate their choices. Some participants constructed situational abstinence, while others participated in temporary light drinking in their friendship networks, but these attracted some consequences. Peers pressured them, but some deployed the ability to offer 'valid' explanations and express self-determination and agency to ward off such pressures and negotiate situational abstinence or moderate drinking. Additionally, the fear of public embarrassment, negative publicity on social media due to intoxication and parental influences motivated some participants' occasional sobriety. Others relied on previous personal or friends' negative experiences of drunkenness or the consequences of heavy drinking represented in movies and books to construct occasional light drinking. The findings demonstrated how enacting and rejecting particular forms of masculinity and embodied gendered drinking practices, more generally, in some friendship groups, facilitated situational abstinence and moderation. Policymakers should partner with young people to design interventions that encourage abstinence or moderation and mitigate the current drinking practices in Nigeria, which will enhance health promotion.

Pushing boundaries or adding a gimmick to the party? Young people's experiences of nitrous oxide use in Denmark

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) use for intoxication among young people has increased in many parts of the Western world, including Denmark. The literature, however, primarily focusses on harms related to N₂O use, and not on other aspects, for example modes of administration or effects such as different forms of pleasure or fun. Therefore, despite this increase, we still know very little about how and why young people use nitrous oxide for intoxication, including their experiences of N₂O intoxication. Based on 45 qualitative interviews with young Danes age 18-25 years, who all were former or present N₂O users, we explore their experiences of N₂O intoxication. We do this by analyzing in-depth descriptions of where, how and with whom they use N₂O. When analyzing these descriptions in relation to different modes of administration, intensity of use, combination with other substances (e.g. alcohol, cannabis), and use in different settings, we argue that N₂O intoxication is experienced differently by the young participants. Some of the participants also searched for particular intoxication experiences with N₂O. We unfold the participants' various descriptions of intoxication by differentiating between moderate and intensive use. Overall, our study shows that these differences in N₂O use for intoxication are not equally risky or harmful. In general, young people's own perspectives and experiences with (illegal) drug use is increasingly emphasized as important to include when developing preventive interventions. Our analysis of the young participants' differing experiences with N₂O for intoxication can inform future prevention initiatives in relation to harms of N₂O intoxication.

Dilemmas of belonging: Young Muslim women in the Danish youth alcohol culture

Aim: Focusing on drinking and partying among young Muslim women in Denmark, our aim was to examine how the drinking practices of young Muslim women are influenced by belonging, understood as sentiments of (national) belonging as well as the broader (politicised) discourse on Muslims in Denmark. Methods and data: Based on 32 qualitative in-depth interviews with young Muslim women, this paper explores their drinking practices as situated in a national youth culture highly influenced by alcohol intoxication. We draw on Nira Yuval-Davies' (2006) distinction between belonging (as emotional attachment) and the politics of belonging. Findings: We found that the young women attempt to avoid negative comments based on stereotypes of Muslims and their drinking, by toning down being a Muslim. In addition, we showed how the difficulties of drinking alcohol while being both Muslim and Danish leads to several of the young women experiencing an 'identity crisis'. Lastly, we found that a way for the studied women to reconcile Muslim and Danish identities is through faith, namely through actively choosing what kind of Muslim they want to be. Conclusion: Being part of a national youth culture of alcohol intoxication is inevitably dilemma-filled for the study's participants and they are challenged in their belonging. We argue that these dilemmas do not stand alone, but rather point to the broader predicaments of these women in Danish society.

The Relationship between Alcohol Drinking Indicators and Self-Rated Mental Health (SRMH): Standardized European Alcohol Survey (SEAS)

Given that the self-perception of mental health is an important predictor of health outcomes and wellbeing, it is important to identify the indicators of mental health associated with alcohol consumption in order to reduce alcohol-related harms. This study used data from the cross-sectional RARHA SEAS survey (2015) in the Croatian general population, aged 18-64 years (n = 1500). Several aspects of drinking behaviors and alcohol-related harms were measured, as well as personal and sociodemographic factors. Logistic regression found a significant association between alcohol's harm to others (AHTO) and poor self-rated mental health (SRMH) (OR = 0.752; 95% CI 0.601-0.941) in the total sample, as well as in the group of participants who rarely drank alcohol (OR = 0.504; 95% CI 0.322-0.787) in the last 12 months. More frequent consumers reported poor SRMH if they had at least one harmful effect from drinking (OR 0.538; 95% CI 0.295-0.980). Younger age, higher education, professional activity, and living with someone else in a household contributed to better SRMH. AHTO has been identified as a strong predictor of poor SRMH in the general population. Targeted public health and preventive measures are needed with specific approaches for different types of alcohol consumers.

Declining drinking among adolescents: Are we seeing a denormalisation of drinking and a normalisation of non-drinking?

BACKGROUND

In the early 2000s, alcohol use among young people began to decline in many western countries, especially among adolescents (ages between 12-17 years old). These declines have continued steadily over the past two decades, against the backdrop of much smaller declines among the general population.

ARGUMENT

Hypotheses examining individual factors fail adequately to provide the necessary 'big picture' thinking needed to understand declines in adolescent drinking. We use the normalisation thesis to argue that there is strong international evidence for both processes of denormalisation of drinking and normalisation of non-drinking occurring for adolescents in many western countries.

CONCLUSIONS

Research on declining adolescent drinking provides evidence of both denormalisation of alcohol consumption and normalisation of non-drinking. This has implications for enabling policy environments more amenable to regulation and increasing the acceptability of non-drinking in social contexts. Normalisation theory (and its various interpretations) provides a useful multi-dimensional tool for understanding declines in adolescent drinking.

Becoming Safe, Legal, Mature, Moderate, and Self-Reflexive: Trajectories of Drinking and Abstinence among Young People

In recent years, a vast body of research has investigated trends of declining alcohol consumption among youths. However, the extent to which restrictive-youth approaches towards drinking are maintained into adulthood is unclear. The aim of this study is to explore how young people's relation to alcohol changes over time. Our data are based on longitudinal qualitative in-depth interviews with 28 participants aged 15 to 23 conducted over the course of three years (2017-2019). The study draws on assemblage thinking by analysing to what kinds of heterogeneous elements young people's drinking and abstinence are related and what kinds of transformations they undergo when they get older. Five trajectories were identified as influential. Alcohol was transformed from unsafe to safe assemblages, from illegal to legal drinking assemblages, from performance-orientated to enjoyment-orientated assemblages, and from immature to mature assemblages. These trajectories moved alcohol consumption towards moderate drinking. Moreover, abstinence was transformed from authoritarian assemblages into self-reflexive assemblages. Self-control, responsibility, and performance orientation were important mediators in all five trajectories. As the sober generation grows older, they will likely start to drink at more moderate levels than previous generations.

Drinking and partying among young Muslim women: Exclusion in the context of a normalized youth drinking culture

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Danish youth drinking culture is characterized by a very high level of alcohol consumption and a focus on intoxication. Young people with Muslim backgrounds drink markedly less, but their experiences with drinking and partying have been overlooked in research concerned with youth drinking. The aim of this paper is to investigate how young Danish Muslim women experience being part of a youth culture of intoxication and how they navigate through processes of exclusion related to drinking and partying. Special attention is paid to the intersections of different social positions relevant to these processes of exclusion in drinking and partying contexts.

METHODS

Twenty-five in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 32 young Danish Muslim women (mean age 23 years) residing mainly in big cities and surrounding areas. An intersectional case study design approach was applied to investigate how certain identities become salient at particular moments or within particular contexts.

RESULTS

The Danish normalized youth culture of intoxication had various consequences for our participants, of which two stand out. First, this culture of intoxication was excluding for young Muslim women and, furthermore, seemed to enhance exclusion based on ethnicity and religion, regardless of whether our participants drank alcohol or abstained. Second, the culture of intoxication actualized gendered ideals within the young women's families, and the potential for conflicts pertaining to drinking and partying could call into doubt their experiences of belonging to a local ethno-religious community.

DISCUSSION

Due to the Danish normalized youth culture of intoxication, young Muslim women are at risk of several exclusions: exclusion from central Danish youth contexts and, potentially, from their religious and cultural roots. We discuss the importance of including agency and strategic manoeuvring in intersectional approaches because these contribute to a better understanding of the complexity found in the results and, furthermore, they help to avoid the pitfalls of determinism and essentialism in studies of minorities. We also discuss how binge drinking prevention initiatives could focus not only on health warnings but also on the social consequences of exclusion.

"No one associates alcohol with being in good health": Health and wellbeing as imperatives to manage alcohol use for young people

Young people's drinking has declined markedly in Australia over the past 15 years, and this may be linked to changing norms and values around health. We take the view that healthism-a discourse that privileges good health and renders people personally responsible for managing health-has become pervasive, creating new pressures influencing young people's alcohol practices. Through interviews with 50 young light drinkers and abstainers, we explored these notions of health and alcohol. Although health was not the only reason that participants abstained or drank lightly, many avoided drinking to minimise health risks and to pursue healthy lifestyles. Their understanding of health came from multiple sources such as the media, schools, parents-and often reinforced public health messages, and healthist discourse. This discourse influenced how participants perceived health norms, engaged with health in everyday life and managed their alcohol consumption. Because the need to be healthy incorporated bodily health, mental health and social wellbeing, it also created tensions around how young people could drink while maintaining their health. This highlights the importance of health as a key consideration in the alcohol practices of light drinking and abstaining young Australians, which could help explain broader declines in youth drinking.