Becoming Safe, Legal, Mature, Moderate, and Self-Reflexive: Trajectories of Drinking and Abstinence among Young People

Eva Samuelsson, Jukka Törrönen, Josefin Månsson and Filip Roumeliotis
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Eva Samuelsson: Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Jukka Törrönen: Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Josefin Månsson: Department of Social Work, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Filip Roumeliotis: Department of Criminology, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 6, 1-13

Abstract: In recent years, a vast body of research has investigated trends of declining alcohol consumption among youths. However, the extent to which restrictive-youth approaches towards drinking are maintained into adulthood is unclear. The aim of this study is to explore how young people’s relation to alcohol changes over time. Our data are based on longitudinal qualitative in-depth interviews with 28 participants aged 15 to 23 conducted over the course of three years (2017–2019). The study draws on assemblage thinking by analysing to what kinds of heterogeneous elements young people’s drinking and abstinence are related and what kinds of transformations they undergo when they get older. Five trajectories were identified as influential. Alcohol was transformed from unsafe to safe assemblages, from illegal to legal drinking assemblages, from performance-orientated to enjoyment-orientated assemblages, and from immature to mature assemblages. These trajectories moved alcohol consumption towards moderate drinking. Moreover, abstinence was transformed from authoritarian assemblages into self-reflexive assemblages. Self-control, responsibility, and performance orientation were important mediators in all five trajectories. As the sober generation grows older, they will likely start to drink at more moderate levels than previous generations.

Keywords: youth; alcohol; abstinence; qualitative longitudinal data; actant; assemblage; trajectory; chains of translation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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