Young people in their early teens who take part in binge drinking sessions out of doors, or in other unsupervised locations, are running an especially high risk of harming their health or safety.
A study for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests that 14- and 15-year olds who get drunk when unsupervised are at particular risk of injuring themselves in accidents or fights, becoming severely intoxicated, or putting themselves in danger through daring and irrational behaviour. Drinking by 16- and 17-year olds in pubs and clubs, while illegal, appears to be less harmful.
Researchers from the Trust for the Study of Adolescence carried out in-depth interviews with 64 young people aged 14 to 17 in south-east England who were chosen because they reported involvement in ‘risky’ drinking. They found that:
- Getting drunk was widely seen as normal and acceptable behaviour among these young, heavy drinkers. They commonly viewed their drinking as a social activity, and some claimed it raised their status among friends.
- The most frequently cited reason for heavy drinking was a desire for self-confidence and social enjoyment. The young drinkers often maintained that getting drunk helped them to make friends and gain confidence in sexual situations.
- A smaller number of interviewees said they got drunk on their own to ‘escape’ from normal life and to forget their problems. Others described getting drunk for the ‘buzz’ it gave them, or said they drank heavily because they were bored.
- Asked about negative consequences of getting drunk, young people reported unprotected sex and other regretted sexual experiences that they did not think would have happened had they been sober.
- All those interviewed described the ill-effects of hangovers and being sick, but a smaller group also referred to experiences of severe intoxication, including collapse and vomiting.
- A high proportion reported injuries as a result of their risky drinking. Most were fairly minor, but a few had been seriously hurt. Most injuries happened while drunk out of doors.
- Although many of the young people did not report any use of illegal drugs, some admitted that heavy drinking had led to loss of control and lower resistance to pressure from their friends and peers. A few said they would use drugs if they became ‘bored’ with the effects of alcohol.
- Risky drinking often led young people to compromise their personal safety: for example, by walking home alone, engaging in daring behaviour and ‘pranks’, or getting into cars with a driver who had also been drinking heavily.
- Most accounts of encounters with the police were minor and included having alcohol tipped away while drinking out of doors. A minority described being arrested for offences that included vandalism and being drunk and disorderly.
- There were striking differences between age groups in the degree of harm reported. Older teenagers reported a ‘calming down’ as their drinking experience increased. Progress to drinking in pubs and other licensed establishments was associated with age, and also appeared to reduce the likelihood of harmful consequences.
Lester Coleman, co-author of the report, said: “In general it was the 14- and 15-year olds we interviewed, and those who said they drank for the ‘buzz’, that were most likely to report harmful outcomes as a result of being drunk. Those who drank heavily to increase their confidence in a social group were least likely to report harmful outcomes. It also seems possible that access to the more supervised environment of pubs served to reduce the levels of risky behaviour among some young people who had been drinking heavily since their early teens.”
Suzanne Cater, co-author, added: “There are valuable messages in this study for health and education initiatives to promote safer, more sensible drinking among young people – especially those whose drinking leads to risky behaviour and harmful outcomes. Changing the culture of ‘binge’ drinking is bound to be difficult when alcohol is so readily available and a large proportion of the adult population use it to excess, at least on occasion. However, a well-planned harm reduction strategy in schools and the wider community would be an important step in the right direction.”
