Risk and restraint-The key to understanding the decreasing use of alcohol for young people in high income countries?
alcohol
declining drinking
risk
young people
Journal
Drug and alcohol review
ISSN: 1465-3362
Titre abrégé: Drug Alcohol Rev
Pays: Australia
ID NLM: 9015440
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
11 Jul 2023
11 Jul 2023
Historique:
revised:
26
05
2023
received:
21
12
2022
accepted:
15
06
2023
medline:
11
7
2023
pubmed:
11
7
2023
entrez:
11
7
2023
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
In this article we seek to understand the changing social position of alcohol use for young people in Australia by identifying how alcohol has become framed as posing a significant risk to their bodies and futures. Forty interviews were conducted with young people aged 18-21 years from Melbourne, Australia, who had previously identified as light drinkers or abstainers. Drawing on insights from contemporary sociologies of risk, we explored how risk was discussed as a governing concept that shaped young people's views of alcohol, and how it encouraged or necessitated risk-avoidance in daily life. Participants drew on a range of risk discourses in framing their abstention or moderate drinking along the lines of health, wellness, wisdom and productivity. They reiterated social constructions of heavy or regular alcohol use as irresponsible, threatening and potentially addictive. The focus on personal responsibility was striking in most accounts. Participants seemed to have routinised ways of practicing risk avoidance and coordinated drinking practices with other practices in their everyday life, with alcohol therefore 'competing for time'. Our findings endorse the idea that discourses of risk and individual responsibility shape the contemporary socio-cultural value of alcohol for young people. Risk avoidance has become routine and is manifested through the practice of restraint and control. This appears particular to high-income countries like Australia, where concerns about young people's futures and economic security are increasing, and where neoliberal politics are the foundations of governmental ideology.
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Subventions
Organisme : Australian Research Council
ID : DE19010107
Informations de copyright
© 2023 The Authors. Drug and Alcohol Review published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.
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