Research project Why are young people drinking less than earlier?
Understanding the mechanisms leading to young people drinking less than the generations before holds implications for approaches to reducing alcohol consumption at the population level in an ongoing way. The project is focuses attention on individual, developmental and social factors of all adolescents, including light drinkers and those who do not drink.
Not much is known about the mechanisms that reduce or increase young peoples’ drinking. The study sheds light on this by testing several hypotheses on what influences young people to drink less. We will explore possible mechanisms, such as structural changes in the family dynamics between parents and children, shifts in the doing of masculinity and femininity, changes in competing preoccupations, changes in building friendship ties by using the new social media and smart phones, and changes in cultural trends that are related to health and fitness issues.
Project description
Project aim
Focus is on analysing the declining trends of young people’s alcohol consumption by using both quantitative and qualitative data sets, as well as by doing comparisons between Sweden and Australia. The study approaches the downturn in youth drinking by analysing six possible explanations for it: 1) Changes in parenting style; 2) changes in gender identities; 3) Increased use of social media; 4) Polarization of drinking habits; 5) A health and fitness trend; 6) The switch to wine. The study takes a task to clarify in what way and in what kinds of contexts these explanations may hold or don’t hold true, and how they alone or together may explain declining alcohol consumption of young people.
Project contribution
Not much is known about the mechanisms that reduce or increase young peoples’ drinking. The study sheds light on this by testing several hypotheses on what influences young people to drink less. We will explore possible mechanisms, such as structural changes in the family dynamics between parents and children, shifts in the doing of masculinity and femininity, changes in competing preoccupations, changes in building friendship ties by using the new social media and smart phones, and changes in cultural trends that are related to health and fitness issues. Understanding the mechanisms leading to young people drinking less than the generations before holds implications for approaches to reducing alcohol consumption at the population level in an ongoing way. The project is innovative as it focuses attention on individual, developmental and social factors of all adolescents, including light drinkers and those who do not drink. It is also innovative by its longitudinal qualitative data design, with which it examines how teenagers and young peoples’ drinking habits are changing/stabilizing in a period of three years.
Project members
Project managers
Jukka Törrönen
Professor
Members
Eva Samuelsson
Senior lecturer, associate professor
Robin G W Room
Emeritus
Ludwig Kraus
Reseacher
Josefin Månsson
Senior lecturer, associate professor
Filip Roumeliotis
vik. lektor
