‘When I open it, I have to drink it all’: Push and pull factors shaping domestic alcohol consumption during the COVID‐19 pandemic UK Spring 2020 lockdown

Abstract

Introduction The closure of licensed venues during the COVID‐19 pandemic meant that most alcohol has been consumed at home during lockdown periods in the UK, a phenomenon that remains under‐researched despite the public health implications. Methods This article draws on a study consisting of online semi‐structured interviews and focus groups with 20 UK drinkers, conducted between the first and second 2020 UK lockdowns. The study aimed to explore changing and enduring UK drinking practices within home spaces during the pandemic. Results Our findings illuminate specific ways in which assemblages and contextual factors may come together to encourage or mitigate against the consumption of any (or excessive) volumes of alcohol at home during the lockdown. For example, the physical presence of alcohol bottles may both encourage consumption (e.g. compulsion to finish an open bottle of wine) and cue reflection on one's drinking (through the potentially confronting presence of empty bottles after domestic drinking). We also highlight the significance of the home as a space separate from—and different to—public drinking spaces. Discussion and Conclusions With the increasing normalisation of domestic drinking during a global pandemic, this paper illuminates several factors that may encourage or curtail domestic alcohol consumption and invites us to consider the importance of assemblages, space and context. Such findings have wider applicability; for example, consideration of specific (and perhaps unique) push and pull factors of home spaces could inform future alcohol policy, health promotion messages and how guidance around ‘moderation’ or risky drinking is communicated.

How Covid-19 restrictions affected young people's well-being and drinking practices: Analyzing interviews with a socio-material approach

“…Secondly, our analysis demonstrates how the restrictions transferred to the home a number of activities previously carried on outside it, thereby transforming the temporal and spatial contours, functions and meanings of our participants’ domestic space. For example, restrictions could make the home into a setting for new kinds of drinking habits, rituals and assemblages ( Conroy & Nicholls, 2021 ; MacLean et al, 2022 ) that had their origin in public drinking venues but now were fully materialized at home from start to finish. As a result, the home could turn into a café where you can enjoy wine alone or with your friends, into a fine dining restaurant where you share with your guests a full meal with carefully chosen wines, or into a nightclub for dancing and having fun.…”

“…As the pandemic period provided laboratory-like circumstances ( Moretti & Maturo, 2021 ) to study what kind of relations young people consider essential for producing well-being, the Covid-19 restrictions on social proximity will be the starting point for this analysis. A few articles on how the Covid-19 lockdowns affected drinking habits suggest that they made home ( Callinan & MacLean, 2020 ; Conroy & Nichols, 2021 ) and social media ( Nichols and Conroy, 2021 ) more important actors in alcohol consumption, which have been under-researched topics in previous studies. With a socio-material approach, detailed below, we address this lack of research and analyze how the pandemic conditions affected young people's well-being and drinking practices.…”

Qualitative insights on alcohol and other drug consumption during COVID‐19

“…Conroy and Nicholls' [ 6 ] exploration of changing and enduring drinking practices in the home during the pandemic attends to, and shows how engaging with, assemblages of human and non‐human actors can be generative in (amongst other things) addressing some of the constraints identified by Caluzzi et al [ 5 ]. Their work demonstrates the significance, symbolic meanings and agency of the home—a place where most alcohol is known to be consumed in societies like present‐day Australia and the United Kingdom [ 7 , 8 ].…”

“…Their work demonstrates the significance, symbolic meanings and agency of the home—a place where most alcohol is known to be consumed in societies like present‐day Australia and the United Kingdom [ 7 , 8 ]. Through analyses of alcohol's capacity to craft new atmospheres and environments, Conroy and Nicholls [ 6 ] show how human and non‐human assemblages encourage or mitigate different forms of consumption, with alcohol consumption shaping an array of possibilities within domestic spaces. They find that the proximity, accessibility and availability of alcoholic drinks in the home during lockdown prompted consumption as a means of re‐imagining domestic spaces as pleasurable and social.…”