10.16909-DATASET-36
Alcohol use and misuse among young people: what about abstainers? An exploratory mixed-methods study
La consommation d’alcool chez les jeunes : qu’en est-il des abstinent·es ? Une étude exploratoire méthodes mixtes
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| Switzerland | CHE |
The percentage of adolescents who do not drink alcohol seems to have increased in the Western world in the past years. However, alcohol abstainers are a particularly understudied group, especially in Switzerland. In order to fill in this gap, the objectives of this research were: (1) To describe the characteristics of alcohol abstainers and whether abstinence evolves into alcohol use over time; (2) To assess the reasons why some youths decide not to drink alcohol or, at the most, drink very moderately; and (3) To understand how abstinent youths live their choice, and how they are perceived/treated by their peers. To respond to the research questions, we plan to use an Explanatory Sequential Design: a mixed-methods design implying collecting and analyzing quantitative and then qualitative data in two consecutive phases within one study.
Qualitative and quantitative data
For quantitative data, we performed secondary analyses with no data collection.
Data are available on separated deposit:
• TREE1 (original data) : https://doi.org/10.23662/FORS-DS-816-7
• TREE2 (original data) : https://doi.org/10.23662/FORS-DS-1255-1
• GenerationFREE (extract useful for this project) and qualitative data : https://doi.org/10.16909/dataset/37
Quantitative data
GenerationFRee is a longitudinal (4 waves) study carried in all post-mandatory schools in the canton of Fribourg among students and apprentices (aged 15-24 years, mean age of 16 at baseline). We used explanatory variables such as biological sex, age, place of birth, type of residence (rural, urban), family structure, academic track, school performance (self-assessment), relationship with the mother and the father, monthly available money, current tobacco smoking, current cannabis use, physical activity, social life, positive view of the future, family socioeconomic status (self-assessment), somatic health and emotional well-being. For the independent variable, alcohol status, the questions asked were Q1-“Do you drink alcohol?” and Q2-“Have you been drunk in the last 30 days?”. Q1 possible answers were “yes” or “no” and Q2 possible answers were: 1=“never”, 2=“1 to 2 times”, 3=”3 to 9 times”, 4= “10 times or more”.
The categories were defined as:
- Abstinent: answer “no” to Q1
- Light drinkers: Q1=”yes”, Q2=”1” (ever used alcohol but never been drunk)
- Heavy drinkers: Q1=”yes”, Q2=”2”, “3” or “4” (ever used alcohol and been drunk in the last 30 days
The TREE1 cohort is a longitudinal study based on a sample of more than 6000 young people living in Switzerland who participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey of the year 2000 and left compulsory school the same year (mean age 16 years at baseline). The sample was followed annually from 2001 to 2007 and additionally in 2010 and 2014 for a total of nine waves. The TREE2 cohort is the second of the TREE cohorts. The design is the same, with a baseline in 2016 (mean age 16 years at baseline) and an annual wave since 2017, with only the first two waves available for analysis at the moment. For the TREE cohorts, the question included in the questionnaire was “How many times have you drank alcohol in the last month?” The possible answers ranged from 1 [Never] to 5 [Every day]. Three categories were defined for the current analysis: • Abstinent (Never); • Light drinkers (1-3 times per month); • Heavy drinkers (weekly or more often).
Qualitative data
The objectives of the qualitative research were to explore how young people define the term ‘abstinence’; to explore their opinions on the Dry January challenge; to assess the reasons why some young people decide not to drink alcohol; to assess the advantages and disadvantages of non-consumption of alcohol; to understand how young non-drinkers live their choice and how they are perceived/treated by their peers; to identify strategies used by non-drinkers to avoid alcohol use while still socializing with their friends. In order to extract the different themes and dimensions raised by the participants, we carried out a thematic content analysis, a method of extracting subjective interpretations and meanings using a process of classification and categorisation of the data
TREE1 : 3347 participants (longitudinal sample, after imputation and weights)
GenerationFRee 1645 participants (longitudinal sample, after imputation and weights)
Qualitative data : 63 participants, including non-consumers and consumers of alcohol, aged between 14 and 20 living in the French-speaking part of Switzerland and fluent in French