‘Just choose the easy option’: students talk about alcohol use and social influence

Abstract

Previous research into young people's drinking behaviour has studied how social practices influence their actions and how they negotiate drinking-related identities. Here, adopting the perspective of discursive psychology we examine how, for young people, social influences are bound up with issues of drinking and of identity. We conducted 19 focus groups with undergraduate students in Australia aged between 18 and 24 years. Thematic analysis of participants' accounts for why they drink or do not drink was used to identify passages of talk that referred to social influence, paying particular attention to terms such as 'pressure' and 'choice'. These passages were then analysed in fine-grained detail, using discourse analysis, to study how participants accounted for social influence. Participants treated their behaviour as accountable and produced three forms of account that: (1) minimised the choice available to them, (2) explained drinking as culture and (3) described resisting peer pressure. They also negotiated gendered social dynamics related to drinking. These forms of account allowed the participants to avoid individual responsibility for drinking or not drinking. These findings demonstrate that the effects of social influence on young people's drinking behaviour cannot be assumed, as social influence itself becomes negotiable within local contexts of talk about drinking.

Alcohol‐related harm minimization practices among university students: Does the type of residence have an impact?

“…All students identified two forms of alcohol‐related harm and presented these as being gender‐based: the risk of or actual sexual assault of young women and physical violence between men. These findings are consistent with existing evidence that many university students regularly drink heavily and experience several alcohol‐related harms (Hepworth et al ., ; Kypri et al ., , ).…”

“…Alcohol use functions as a conduit to becoming accepted by peers and developing a sense of belonging to particular social groups that young adults identify with as they transition from home to university. Regular risk-related alcohol use and illicit drug use are what many young people do (Measham, 2002) and is part of their construction of identity (Griffin, Bengry-Howell, Hackley, Mistral, & Szmigin, 2009;Hepworth et al, 2016). Drinking biographies of young adults also illustrate how heavy alcohol use involves; 'fun, pleasure and temporary escape from responsibilities' (Lindsay, Harrison, Advocat, Kelly, & Hickey, 2009: 50).…”

“…These psychological models of alcohol use are not informed, as social psychologists have argued, by understanding the social practices of drinking (Szmigin et al, 2011) or the 'culture of intoxication' (Measham & Brain, 2005). 'Social influence' is not only fundamental in shaping young university students' drinking, as illustrated in their accounts of experiencing pressure to drink alcohol, but can also operate in ways whereby students minimize individual responsibility for harmful alcohol use (Hepworth et al, 2016). Given the importance of social influence on young adults' alcohol consumption, there is, however, increasing recognition that interventions need to shift away from the negative health effects of heavy drinking towards a focus on negative social consequences and positive health consequences of not drinking heavily (Kingsbury, Gibbons, & Gerrard, 2014).…”

Alcohol and Drug Use in European University Health Science Students: Relationship with Self-Care Ability

“…Moreover, alcohol often plays an essential role in young people's lives when they enter university [6]. Multiple factors contribute to young university student risk-related alcohol use [7,8], though in particular, university students are at risk of substance abuse behaviors due to changes in lifestyle, reduced parental support, and the presence of stressful situations [9]. Higher education studies offered by universities and specifically in the health sciences should provide knowledge about the harmful health and social consequences of the use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs, which represent significant health and social concern in university life [10].…”

Social identity and alcohol in young adolescence: the perceived difference between youthful and adult drinking

“…It is often seen as a way to exhibit social maturity and represent a way for adolescents to experiment with identities (Johnson 2013;Demant & Järvinen 2006;Demant & Østergaard 2007). While abstention rates have been increasing in recent birth cohorts, both in Europe and internationally (Livingston 2014;Meng et al 2014;Raninen, Livingston & Leifman 2014), discourse analysis show that drinking alcohol is still viewed as the norm by young people (Hepworth et al 2016). …”