Fenton, L. orcid.org/0000-0002-8747-9960, Fairbrother, H. orcid.org/0000-0001-9347-8625, Whitaker, V. orcid.org/0000-0001-7883-3852 et al. (3 more authors) (2024) Geographies of alcohol and generation: examining the decline in youth drinking in England through a spatial lens. Drug and Alcohol Review, 43 (3). pp. 675-684. ISSN 0959-5236
Abstract
Introduction While international literature addresses the links between youth culture and the decline in youth drinking, little research has engaged with scholarship on youth geographies to more fully disentangle these links. This article explores how the decline is connected to shifts in where young people access and drink alcohol.
Methods Qualitative interviews were conducted with young people aged 12–19 (N = 96) and 29–35 (N = 17) years in England. The interviews explored the place of alcohol in everyday life, with younger participants discussing the present and older participants discussing their youth in the late 1990s to early 2000s. Data were analysed thematically.
Findings Buying alcohol in shops and licensed premises was a common experience for older participants when they were teenagers but few younger participants discussed buying alcohol from commercial settings. Older participants also reflected positively on drinking in outdoor public spaces whereas younger participants, particularly those from working-class backgrounds, regarded this as morally suspect. Young participants instead accessed alcohol from parents and siblings, and often consumed it in their or others' homes in supervised or moderated ways, seeing this as positive and normative.
Discussion and Conclusion Spatial shifts in young people's drinking away from public spaces and toward the home appear an important part of a wider trend that renders youth drinking as increasingly moderate, risk-averse, incidental and mediated by parents, rather than excessive, transgressive and integral to youth culture.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 The Authors. Drug and Alcohol Review published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | alcohol; home; public space; youth |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Health and Related Research (Sheffield) > ScHARR - Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > Health Sciences School (Sheffield) The University of Sheffield > Academic Programmes and Student Engagement |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 06 Jul 2023 08:55 |
Last Modified: | 04 Oct 2024 11:43 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/dar.13710 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:201243 |