Health, risk-taking and well-being: doing gender in relation to discourses and practices of heavy drinking and health among young people

Abstract

In the last 20 years, adolescents' heavy drinking in many western countries has declined. Simultaneously, researchers have identified an increased interest in health among young people. The paper compares adolescents' gendered discourses and practices on intoxication and health in order to clarify the role gender plays in their current low alcohol consumption. The data consists of semi-structured interviews about alcohol, health and leisure activities among adolescents aged between 15 and 19 (N = 56). In the coding of the material, we have singled out two approaches to health and well-being among the participants, which we name the 'social' and 'physical health' approaches. By drawing on Butler's work on 'gender as performativity', Connell's understanding of gendered identities as 'multidimensional' and Bourdieu's concept of 'habitus', we analyse how the participants align with, negotiate or oppose the hegemonic masculinities and femininities in these approaches, and examine the everyday practices that the two approaches are embedded in. Our analysis shows that the participants' gendered performances in the 'physical health' approach are more variable, reflective and critical than those in the 'social health' approach. Moreover, the physical health approach modifies young people's risktaking practices of heavy drinking and helps to reinforce practices that favour young people's low alcohol consumption. We propose that the move from doing gender in relation to risk-taking by heavy drinking towards doing it more through health-and physical appearance-related activities may generate processes that narrow the gender gap between masculinities and femininities and encourage new kinds of interaction and gender blending between them.

Doing adulthood—doing alcohol: what happens when the ‘sober generation’ grows up?

“…This article is based on the third interview occasion, including 39 participants with an age range from 17 to 21 years old. Previous results have concentrated on the first and second interview occasions to understand this change when the participants were 15-19 years old (Törrönen et al 2019(Törrönen et al , 2020a(Törrönen et al , 2020b(Törrönen et al , 2020c. The results corroborate previous findings (e.g.…”

“…This substantial decrease in young people's drinking has puzzled researchers, politicians, and the public, and little is still known about the mechanisms behind it (Raninen and Livingston 2018). Recent studies have presented multiple explanations, and our study is part of a longitudinal project investigating this change in drinking culture (see Törrönen et al 2019Törrönen et al , 2020aTörrönen et al , 2020bTörrönen et al , 2020c. In this project, young people in Sweden have been interviewed on three occasions.…”

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

“…Furthermore, our analysis suggests that when young people get older and accumulate drinking experiences, they often start to see excessive undisciplined, irresponsible, or unhealthy drinking as a sign of a moral failure of the self [ 39 ]. This further orientates their drinking towards moderate or more disciplined drinking relations and practices [ 40 ]. As there are concerns of increasing mental health issues among young people [ 41 ], more research is needed to understand how diverse aspects of emerging adults’ everyday life practices, substance use, and performance expectations affect their health and well-being.…”

Gender and Childhood Victimization: A Longitudinal Study of Heavy Drinking in Young Adulthood

“…The prevalence of cases in which depressive symptoms exist alongside heavy drinking points to the need for carefully constructed programming able to address the underlying traumatic experiences or other risk factors positioning these possibly endogenous outcomes [41,44]. Relatedly, trajectories for future programming require the careful inclusion of the intersection of sex, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity, alongside but not instead of race [96][97][98]. Current programming may not yet be agile enough to address the specific needs of depressed women coping through heavy drinking [18].…”