By René A. Azeez, Honours BSc. Developmental Biology, University of Toronto. June 09, 2011.
Alcohol has in some way affected every individual, directly or indirectly, socially or religiously, positively or negatively, at one point or another in our lives. Whatever your beliefs about alcohol and its use or misuse, it is undeniable that alcohol is surrounded by many tales and equally as many truths. Despite its widespread social permeation, alcohol still retains the allure of mystery, especially to eager to grow up adolescents. In a study published in the Journal Addictive Behaviors entitled “Making Sense of alcohol experiences, young adolescents’ accounts of alcohol-related critical incidents”, Joris J. Van Hoof and his team decided to explore the implications of alcohol use in the life of young adolescents in the Netherlands. Researchers decided to look closely at the consequences, parental roles, and adolescent evaluations of alcohol use and incidents stemming from alcohol use.
Researchers conducted 45 interviews using the ‘critical incident technique’ or CIT; a technique used in research to observe and inherently attempt to evaluate human behavior, in this case adolescents between 15 and 16; through methodically defined criteria. Of the incidents recalled, researchers were able to find that the most prevalent consequence was that of ‘becoming ill’. This was seen in 19% of recollected alcohol related incidents, followed by ‘doing strange things’ seen in 16% of recollections, ‘interpersonal conflicts’ in 12%, ‘accidents or injuries’ in 11% and finally, ‘making contact more easily’ was recollected in 10% of incidents. Furthermore, parents were only aware of incidents in their entirety in about half the total number of cases.
Perhaps the most important finding of the study was that whilst participants were clearly able to link the negative consequences of alcohol consumption to their personal experience or being witness to someone else’s negative experience, it was unlikely that they were deterred from intentions to consume alcohol again, or consume less alcohol. In fact, interview participants tended to label negative consequences as overall positive experiences in their accounts.
Researchers believe that these findings point out two important observations in adolescent alcohol consumption. Firstly, it is complex in nature and a greater understanding of the roles of parents and the information being provided to adolescents is needed. Secondly, the study points towards the failure of the ‘scary story’ approach to prevention of alcohol consumption in teens and young adults. They contend that this approach may have the opposite effect and instead of deterring, encourage the early consumption of alcohol. Efforts in controlling availability and encouraging parental involvement seem to more likely offer a solution to the problem.
REFERENCE: Van Hoof J J V, Van den Boom S, and De Jong M D T. Making sense of alcohol experiences: young adolescents’ accounts of alcohol-related critical incidents. Addictive Behaviors, 36: 849-854; 2011.
