In the Eye of the Beholder: Alcohol Use and Perceptions Among Student-Patrons of ‘Joints’ in Three Nigerian University Communities

Abstract

Alcohol use and its associated problems among university students have attracted empirical investigation by researchers and scholars. While many of these studies have reported a very high level of alcohol consumption and highlighted the various problems this portends, alcoholrelated perceptions of this vulnerable population, which could be germane to intervention aimed at curtailing the problem, have remained largely under-researched. This cross-sectional survey examined the use and perceptions of alcohol by student-patrons (n=1,705) of beer parlours or 'joints' in three university communities in Southwest Nigeria. Respondents were interviewed using AUDIT, a socio-demographic prototype and an open-ended section on alcohol-related perceptions of the students. Findings indicated that overall, 72% of the respondents perceived that alcohol is good for socializing, 68% perceived that alcohol is good in the aspect of stress reduction, 58% believed that alcohol consumption is indicative of maturity, 36% perceived that alcohol enhances their sexual performance while 39% perceived that alcohol serves to enhance alertness/concentration. Results also showed that gender (β=−. 23; p<.05), paternal alcohol use (β=.36; p<.01), parental socio-economic status (β=.33; p<.01), and residential status of university of respondents (β=.21; p<.05) significantly predicted alcohol use. The study concluded that perceptions about alcohol are very germane to understanding students' alcohol use and should be reckoned with in designing intervention programmes. The need to adopt a 'client-centered' approach to the problem of student drinking behaviour was emphasized.

‘What a man can do, a woman can do better’: gendered alcohol consumption and (de)construction of social identity among young Nigerians

“…In contemporary Nigeria, available quantitative studies reveal that many young men are drinking hazardously and are using other substances [53,54]. Among their female counterparts, a few studies [55,56] have identified different patterns of alcohol use.…”

Use of mixed methods designs in substance research: a methodological necessity in Nigeria

“…He adopted a 93-item questionnaire that combined ''six mutually exclusive scales'' to measure risky behaviours due to harmful alcohol use. Abikoye and Osinowo (2011) in another survey of 1705, purposively selected students of three universities in western Nigeria; they adopted the AUDIT questionnaire to measure the perception of students who patronize drinking joints. Chikere and Mayowa (2011) also employed self-administered structured questionnaire to describe the prevalence and perceived health effect of alcohol use among 482 male undergraduate students in Owerri, eastern Nigeria.…”

“…For example, two studies (Abikoye and Osinowo 2011;Chikere and Mayowa 2011) reported that students use alcohol to enhance sexual performance. This finding is a sensitive one attributable to myriad of reasons, one such is how some alcoholic beverages are advertised in Nigeria (Obot and Ibanga 2002).…”

Mediating alcohol use in Eastern Nigeria: a qualitative study exploring the role of popular media in young people's recreational drinking

“…It was important to explore the social context of drinking amongst young people who lived on and around University campus as these locations are key sites for excessive alcohol consumption in Nigeria [ 30 ]. This study was conducted on a university located in a city of Anambra State, south-eastern Nigeria between September and December 2013.…”

“…to construct/express a range of masculine/feminine identities) [ 29 ]. There is also evidence of diverse drinking patterns and motives among students in Nigeria [ 30 , 31 ] and alcohol-related problems such as accidents, mental disorder, anxiety, amongst others, are increasing [ 32–34 ] but to date, there is no empirical evidence on how the media may be part of these trajectories.…”