What about just saying “no”? Situational abstinence from alcohol at parties among 13–15 year olds

Abstract

Despite the fact that alcohol use by adolescents is publicly discouraged, alcohol plays an important role as a mediator of relationships between adolescents, and in the process of their becoming adults. Here I introduce the concept of situational abstinence – refusing alcohol in certain situations while consuming it in others – which offers a good alternative for maintaining and developing social relationships and is therefore used by adolescents at parties and other occasions. In this study, I analyse Estonian adolescents’ situational abstinence and their narratives regarding the possibilities of abstinence at parties where peers consume alcohol. The study uses social practise theory, which conceptualises social practise as a basic unit of social processes, seeing it as a recognisable pattern of action embedded in culture, with social actors acting as carriers of practise. Small-group interviews were conducted with 49 Estonian eighth grade students (13–15 years old), with the focus being on capturing their narratives about refusing alcohol. The results suggest that in adolescent party culture, the practise of situational abstinence exists, but is suppressed, especially during the preparatory phase of parties. Encouraging the sharing of narratives about situational abstinence could be an effective means of alcohol prevention.

Keywords:

• Alcohol
• abstinence
• adolescents
• social practise theory
• narrative analysis
• prevention

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to professor Triin Vihalemm for guiding the work and to dr. Sébastien Tutenges, professor Geoffrey Hunt, and dr. Maria Herold for their excellent advice. The author is thankful to all the schools and students willing to participate in the study.

Declaration of interest

This work was supported by institutional research funding from the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research (IUT 20–38), and an Estonian Research Council grant (no. 9017). The author reports no other conflict of interest. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Notes

Notes

1. In Estonia, a person gets a criminal record for both felonies and misdemeanours.

2. In Estonia, these kinds of studies do not need approval from an ethics committee if informed consent is given by the parents or the children, and the school agrees to the study. For the consent and assent, it must be stated what information will be collected, how it will be used, who will have access to the data, how long the data will be saved, and that the interviewee has the right not to attend or to stop answering questions whenever they wish.

3. According to Labov, a narrative has six features: abstract, orientation, complicating action, resolution, evaluation and coda.

4. A learner’s driving licence can be obtained at the age of 16 in Estonia.