what first drink means in both italy and finland course hero

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How does the study examine Italian young people's attitudes towards alcohol policies?

The study examines Italian young people’s opinions and attitudes towards alcohol policies in order to shed light on the potential challenges to the introduction of more restrictive policies. A mixed methods research design was employed. A CAWI survey and online forum targeted 15–25 year olds, resulting in 1,816 valid responses to the online questionnaires and 86 blog comments; focus groups were conducted with two different groups, aged 15–17 and 23–25, including 31 participants. The study indicated that young people are rather well informed about the law, and have generally positive opinions about alcohol-related regulation. Nevertheless, opinions and behaviours do not always match. Findings are consistent with more general reflections about the gap between attitudes and behaviours. A large majority of respondents express negative opinions about more restrictive alcohol availability norms. The study shows the lack of enforcement of current laws and the consequences of that on young people’s attitudes towards the law.

What is the drinking culture in Norway?

Norway has a drinking culture characterised by low per capita consumption, heavy drinking on a few occasions, and restrictive alcohol policies. Attitudes towards alcohol have traditionally been ambivalent, but recently they have become more “continental” among adults, and the temperance movement has lost ground. This qualitative study explores perceptions of alcohol among 12-to-13-year-old Norwegians. The main result from focus group and individual interviews with 141 participants is that young adolescents are highly sceptical of drinking. They believe that people drink because they “want to be cool”, because they are miserable, or because of group pressure. The perceived effects of alcohol consumption include getting drunk and addicted, while those who drink alcohol are described as immature and marginalised. Arguably, these results reflect a deep-rooted cultural ambivalence towards alcohol in Norway. The young adolescents’ perceptions of alcohol reflect adult voices, but do not indicate lack of agency. Instead actively imitating adult voices can be seen as a first step into adulthood. When young adolescents grow older however, categorical rejections of alcohol will be associated with childhood, and must be replaced with more personal, nuanced and sophisticated forms to justify abstinence from alcohol.

Is alcohol a social representation?

Alcohol is an addictive substance that is integrated and normalized indifferent cultural contexts, and therefore has different forms of social representation. These have evolved significantly over the years, as evidenced by the changing consideration of alcohol as avice to a disease in developed societies over the last fifty years. Social representation is considered to be a way of building and interpret in reality and of integrating collective beliefs. However, a leitmotif exists in societies that have traditionally consumed alcohol, characterized by a great permissiveness that leads to increased consumption. We have reviewed some works that analyze these issues and in conclusion, we point out that social representation is a modifiable construct that may be used as a preventive action in alcohol consumption in thegeneral population and more specifically, in experimental consumption amongst young people.