"They must be 18 years old ... really":. Alcohol debut discourses at parent meetings within
alcohol prevention programmes in school
Engelsk titel: "They must be 18 years old ... really":. Alcohol debut discourses at parent meetings within
alcohol prevention programmes in school
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Författare:
Henriksen, Öystein
Email: oystein.henriksen@uin.no
Språk: Eng
Antal referenser: 27
Dokumenttyp:
Artikel
UI-nummer: 13023487
Sammanfattning
AIMS – This article analyses how parents discuss norms of youth alcohol debut at meetings of
alcohol prevention programmes in schools. The focus is on how different ways of argumentation
can help to deal with dilemmas between what parents perceive to be the right age of debut, what
they describe as common, and what they consider is possible to realise. METHODS AND DATA –
The data mainly consists of audio recordings of conversations at parent meetings arranged by an
alcohol prevention programme in the eighth grade at four schools in four different locations in
Norway. The study takes its inspiration from discourse analysis. RESULTS – The analysis identifies
three different patterns of parent discussions about alcohol debut. This information is used to
construct three discourses of norms for alcohol debut, namely, a traditional discourse, a discourse
of modern upbringing and a discourse of legalisation. Both the traditional opinions, which centre
on the significance of the confirmation age, and the modern individualised norms are challenged
by arguments for an 18-year limit in these discussions. CONCLUSION – The legal age limit of 18
years seemed implicitly or explicitly to be a strong resource of argumentation for formulating
common norms for alcohol debut. In the parents’ discussions, too, the consensus seems to be
moving towards the 18-year age limit.