Factors influencing the drinking habits of adolescents

Abstract

The aim of this descriptive exploratory study was to obtain information about alcohol consumption by 16 and 17-year-old adolescents. During adolescence, young people go through a lot of biological, psychological, emotional and social changes. These changes are influenced by the individual genetic make-up and by several social settings such as the family, friends, religion, the social economic status, ethnicity, the media and the world of entertainment. Consequently, this study attempts to understand whether and how intrapersonal factors and these social settings affect alcohol use in Maltese adolescents. Quantitative data was collected through questionnaires, which were administered to a stratified random sample of 55 subjects attending post-secondary school. The results indicated that 93% of this sample had drunk alcohol at least once in their lifetime. It seemed that there was no major gender difference in alcohol consumption. Nevertheless, the present findings revealed a significant number of males who binge drink more than females over a period of 30 days. There also seemed to be a relationship between the pattern of adolescents' alcohol consumption, their friends, the evenings, the weekends and places of entertainment These include discos, bars and pubs, drinking alcohol for enjoyment, and drinking alcohol to feel good. From this study it emerged that the parents, and even more, the peers play a significant role in influencing the drinking habits of adolescents. This study has indicated the need for health education programmes to emphasise the harmful effects of alcohol and to try to find solutions to reduce this problem. This was very important since most of the adolescents, even though they knew that alcohol is bad for health, seemed to underestimate it and still continued to drink it in large quantities.