Australia: Study aims to answer why growing numbers of young people are turning away from alcohol

Source: ABC Radio Adelaide

By Brett Williamson

June 16, 2017

New data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reveals a trend among teenagers to abstain from alcohol, unlike their parents.

“Young people are generally drinking less, delaying their initiation to alcohol, and there are more abstainers,” PhD student Sue Sharrad told ABC Radio Adelaide’s Mornings program.

“Most people wouldn’t think that would be the case.”

Ms Sharrad said she found it interesting the current community focus was on problem drinking while no research was available on why more young people were abstaining.

“Alcohol plays a big part in our culture and we are well known to have a drinking culture,” she said.

With non-drinkers often facing social stigma, Ms Sharrad said the trend became even more interesting.

Study launched to trace trend reversal

As part of her nursing PhD studies at the University of Adelaide, Ms Sharrad is investigating why teenagers are refraining from alcohol.

“We’ve got a lot of young people who are able to resist [the drinking culture] and we really want to find out about why that is so,” she said.

“What we are hoping to do is give information back to people who are building strategies around the prevention of alcohol consumption.”

Instead of concentrating on the teenagers who drank heavily, Ms Sharrad said she wanted to find out why those who didn’t abstained.

“[Strategists] have always utilised data from adolescents who consume alcohol,” she said.

“We think we can better inform [strategists with abstinence data].”

Ms Sharrad said she was hoping to attract teenagers willing to share their thoughts on not drinking alcohol for her research.

Willing participants aged between 14 and 19 can contact her through her Adolescents Resisting The Drinking Culture Facebook page.