Programme full

Wednesday 15 April 2015 16:00 - 17:30
PAPER SESSION 3
areas in order to inform a health promotion intervention. We conducted five focus groups in Scotland with 28 men
recruited from amateur football clubs, unemployment training centres, and criminal justice services. Men reported a
change in their drinking practices compared to their youth. Alcohol was now used as reward, relaxation and release
from life pressure, although constrained by the adoption of new social duties and roles at this stage of the lifecourse.
However, there was often a disjuncture between respondents' drinking practices (getting drunk) and their intended
aims of drinking (relaxation and reward) . The 'mature drinker' was viewed as someone who can drink without
becoming drunk, has self-discipline, resists social pressures to drink and meets their obligations as an employee,
partner and parent. Our qualitative study indicates that an effective intervention would highlight the discrepancy
between the intended aims of drinking and actual drinking practices, promote success in achieving aspects of the
'mature drinker' role and advance the idea that men have a choice about the different social networks they can
access, and that this choice will affect the amount of alcohol they consume.
Understanding Undergraduate Drinking Culture in a Modern University
Wright, J., Griffiths, L., Shaw, D.
(Buckinghamshire New University)
The drinking behaviour of young people continues to be of topical interest with ongoing references to a 'binge drinking
culture' consistent in the British media. Drinking behaviours in universities has been seen to be particularly
problematic with reports of students being hospitalised after extreme drinking sessions. A number of studies explore
this behaviour in large scale descriptive studies showing trends in morbidity and mortality in university and colleges.
However, qualitative studies, informed by sociological theory which explores the interpretations of drinking in the
social context of a university setting are limited.
This study explores the drinking culture in a modern, English university using a case study methodology and an
ethnographic framework. This longitudinal study follows a cohort of students through their time at university with
multiple data collection points across the three years. Purposive sampling ensured that a cross-section of courses
and other variables was represented in the study.
In depth individual interviews with a variety of stakeholders, student focus groups and other methods were
triangulated to explore the pattern of drinking behaviours that occurs over time. Data collection is in the final stages
and this paper reports on the emergent themes. These include socialisation into university life, the role of drinking in
group membership, games, societies and initiations. In order to illustrate the emergent themes individual stories will
be used as part of the presentation. Apart from sociologists, the results of this study will be of interest to universities,
the Student Union and to public health professionals.
‘I Wouldn’t Dare Touch That, We Wouldn’t Drink That: An Exploration of Young People’s Drinking Practices
in North-east England
Scott, S., Shucksmith, J., Baker, R., Kaner, E.
(Newcastle University)
There is a growing recognition that an intersection of individual, social, and physical environmental factors may
collectively influence adolescent drinking practices. This paper applies Bourdieu's theoretical concepts of habitus,
field, capital and practice to explore the cultural context of young people's alcohol use and the meanings and values
they attached to drinking practices. As part of a larger mixed-method study, interviews were conducted with 31
adolescents aged 13-18 in North East England. For all young people interviewed, drinking practices were an important
source of social capital. Consumption was used to construct identity, cement their place within their peer group and as
a means of marking out the practices of others as 'different'. Whilst all young people reproduced dominant adult
drinking practices in relation to social drinking, two habitus associated with alcohol emerged. The first centred on
drinking to demonstrate maturity whilst the second rested on drinking to lose control. For young people in each
habitus, practice served to generate distinction, prestige and bolster social status. Marketing activity represented an
important, embedded aspect of young people's drinking environments in our study, and appeared to operate by
harnessing reproducing cultural norms and practices as an embodied and naturalised part of society for young people.
Interventions are needed which not only seek to reduce excessive drinking, but which recognise the complexity and
multiplicity in young people's attitudes and practices, in order to acknowledge young people's social and emotional
need for identity, social status and distinction amongst their peer groups and wider social networks.
123 BSA Annual Conference 2015
Glasgow Caledonian University