Harm minimization among teenage drinkers: findings from an ethnographic study on teenage alcohol use in a rural Danish community

Abstract

Aim: To examine strategies of harm minimization employed by teenage drinkers.

Design, setting and participants: Two periods of ethnographic fieldwork were conducted in a rural Danish community of approximately 2000 inhabitants. The fieldwork included 50 days of participant observation among 13-16-year-olds (n = 93) as well as 26 semistructured interviews with small self-selected friendship groups of 15-16-year-olds (n = 32).

Findings: The teenagers participating in the present study were more concerned about social than health risks. The informants monitored their own level of intoxication, but in order to reduce alcohol consumption they depended upon support from their peers. The informants preferred drinking in the company of well-known and trusted peers, and during drinking episodes they supervised and intervened in each others' drinking to the extent that they deemed it necessary and possible. In regulating the social context of drinking they relied on their personal experiences more than on formalized knowledge about alcohol and harm, which they had learned from prevention campaigns and educational programmes.

Conclusions: In this study we found that teenagers may help each other to minimize alcohol-related harm, and teenage peer groups should thus be considered a resource for health promotion.