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Non-drinking and social life in adolescence: a qualitative study in Switzerland
Lorraine Chok1, Joan-Carles Suris1, Lucie Vittoz1
1Department of Epidemiology and Health Systems, Research Group On Adolescent Health, Center for Primary Care and Public Health (Unisanté), University of Lausanne, Route de La Corniche 10, 1010 Lausanne, CH Switzerland.
Background:
Alcohol consumption is popular among adolescents and young people and adolescent non-drinkers may be socially excluded and/or stigmatized. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the social life of young non-drinkers (14-20 years old), to understand how they live their non-drinking and how they are perceived by their drinking peers.
Methods:
We conducted a qualitative research on non-consumption of alcohol in the French-speaking region of Switzerland. Our study included 63 young people divided into 12 focus groups aged 14 to 20 years.
Results:
Overall, young non-drinkers would be a minority in their peer groups, leading some of them to feel out of the norm. Participants reported that not drinking alcohol is generally questioned and non-drinkers are almost always asked to justify their non-consumption. Finally, non-drinkers are sometimes automatically designated as resources who have to control the drinking of others and/or are the ones who help their drinking-peers if they are drunk and need help, a status that can put them under pressure.
Conclusions:
It is important to normalize the non-consumption of alcohol and make non-drinkers visible by including them in school-based prevention interventions.
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