Adults’ views of young people's drinking in Italy: An explorative qualitative research

Abstract

Aims: This study aims to investigate the views of adults towards youth drinking, and what they think about alcohol-related parenting styles, as these attitudes are among the factors most affecting adolescents’ alcohol use and misuse.

Methods: Ten focus groups involving 30 parents and 32 teachers were organized in two towns located in Northern (Torino) and Southern (Cosenza) Italy. The Reception Analytical Group Interview (RAGI) method was used, employing video-clips as stimuli.

Findings: Gaps in adult's understanding of youth drinking were found, the most important being the overestimation of young people's appreciation of drunkenness and the underestimation of young people's pharmaceutical use of alcohol. Parents viewed the family as the main influence on youth drinking and alcohol-related problems, but had doubts about what alcohol-specific parental practices are best.

Conclusion: General reflection is needed about the public discourse surrounding youth drinking and its influences on the views of adults. In addition, more evidence is needed about the effectiveness of alcohol-specific parenting practices, so that parents can be better informed.

Acknowledgements

We would like to extend our warmest thanks to Pekka Sulkunen and Anu Katainen for having shared the aims of the project with us, and Massimo Cerulo and Ettore de Franco for the field work in Cosenza. Special thanks are due to the headmasters and teachers of the schools involved in the study and to the students who participated.

Declaration of interest: The study was funded by ERAB-The European Research Foundation for Alcohol Research (GRANT EA 11 37). Field research in Torino was conducted with the support of the University of Helsinki, Department of Social Research/Centre for Research on Addiction, Control and Governance (CEACG), as part of the project “Images of alcohol use among adolescents -- Qualitative comparison of cultural and class differences in Finland and Italy”.

Franca Beccaria is a member of Scientific Laboratory of Osservatorio Permanente sui Giovani e l’Alcool (Permanent Observatory on Youth and Alcohol) in Rome, an association which is mainly funded by the Italian Breweries Association. For this task she does not receive any honorarium, but the reimbursement for traveling expenses for one/two meeting/s per year. In 2012, she has received an honorarium from ERAB (The European Foundation for Alcohol Research, an independent alcohol research foundation supported by The Brewers of Europe) for participating at the project “Underage drinking. A report on drinking in the second decade of life in Europe and North America”. They also reimbursed the traveling costs for a meeting in Montreal and a meeting in Brussels. Together with the University of Torino (applicant) she got a grant from ERAB for the research “Images of adolescent alcohol use and health in Italy. A study of teenagers’drinking and societal reactions to it” (2012–2013).

Franco Prina is a member of Scientific Laboratory of Osservatorio Permanente sui Giovani e l’Alcool (Permanent Observatory on Youth and Alcohol) in Rome, an association which is mainly funded by the Italian Breweries Association.

He (applicant University of Torino) also got a grant from ERAB for the research “Images of adolescent alcohol use and health in Italy. A study of teenagers’drinking and societal reactions to it” (2012–2013).

Sara Rolando and Enrico Petrilli report no conflicts of interest.