Assignment 4

Binge Drinking - Alcohol & The Young

For Assignment 4 we were asked to select two resources to read and take notes on. We were then to write a piece outlining, analysing then comparing them.

The two texts I choose to read tackle the topic of alcohol and binge drinking in young people. The first book deals with binge drinking in young people, the consequences on family, friends, the community and more importantly the young binge drinker and recommendations to encourage young people to adopt a safe approach to drinking. Binge drinking would normally be associated with the “typical working man” getting his wage on a Friday and as soon as he finishes work it’s straight to the “pub” to get well and truly “sozzled” until he spends all his spare cash. Well, unfortunately this is no longer true, more and more binge drinkers are young children as in a report of a joint working party of the Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Association “Alcohol and the Young”.

The authors are addressing the fact that it is not just the impact of drugs on children and young people that we should be worrying about but the growing menace that alcohol poses on them. There are many different causes for young people to start drinking, parental influences, peer pressure, socio-economic factors and ethnic status. Interestingly in the socio-economic factors children aged 9-15 years of professional and managerial parents drink less, then by 16-19 years it is similar to all socio-economic groups but by 20 years plus in higher socio-economic groups the drinking becomes risky or unsafe levels (Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Association 1995 p35). Another interesting fact is that in ethnic minorities such as Greeks, Jews, Italians and Chinese there is a low rate of alcohol consumption as they encourage their children in moderate drinking patterns within the family (Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Association 1995, p34). This only emphasises the ideas of the authors that “accepted wisdom”, meaning that parents have an important influence on their children’s behaviour towards alcohol and as long as there is a control pattern then children will learn good habits towards drink.

The authors of this report gather their facts from data gathered from national reports such as “A study of adolescent drinking” carried out in 1984 by the “Office of Population Census and Surveys” and surveys carried out by the “Health Education Authority (HEA) and these support the following facts (Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Association 1995, p30), “when do children start to consume alcohol?“. At 13 years of age 80% of boys and 73% of girls have tasted alcohol, by 15 years 91% of boys and 90% of girls and the figures are roughly the same at 17 years. For young people who are completely abstinent at 15 years largely remain so at 17 years. So the conclusion would be to educate children of the dangers of alcohol at a young age. They would be able to make an informed decision therefore protecting themselves from the harmful effects of alcohol. The authors also use their own experiences gather from their daily life as doctors and surgeons and the intoxicated patients that come through the emergency department on a daily basis.

The main issue the author finds most important is the best way to educate the young people effectively and their belief is to target the parents, teachers, doctors, nurses, social workers, alcohol industry and political policy makers in order to make this happen.

My second choice of book in comparison is “Binge Drinking & Youth Culture Alternative Perspectives” edited by Malcolm MacLachlan and Caroline Smyth takes a different approach and looks at constructive and effective strategies in dealing with binge drinking. This book deals mainly with the Irish youth and emphasises the connection with binge drinking to serious social problems such as suicide, especially with regard to the youth culture in Ireland and the UK. This book draws heavily on statistics and facts which often bamboozles the reader with too much evidence such that it takes the emphasis away from the purpose that there is a very clear alcohol problem and no strong strategy to combat the crisis.

Once you have read through the mass of facts and figures, the criticisms between various researchers as to whether the facts are in deed complete (MacLachlan, Smyth 2004, p24) causes much confusion and deflects from the purpose of the book to inform and hopefully enlighten the reader of the dangers of binge drinking. It comes across that the authors have not had first hand experience with binge drinking in young people. I feel that all of their experiences are taken from other researchers and papers on the subject. I believe their facts and figures are correct but does this really help the reader understand what the are actually reading. It is too compacted, too cluttered with statistics as in chapter 6,”Today’s Young Drinkers” (MacLachlan, Smyth 2004, p125) the whole paragraph details more fact and more figures, this becomes boring and the reader then finds it difficult to find the point the authors are making.

I find the whole book a disappointment, totally confusing and unhelpful. There is too much conflicting facts, too many external papers, research papers you would have to read to understand the point being made that you have totally lost track why you were reading the book.


Although the two books that I have chosen to discuss are similar in that they both deal with binge drinking and young people the first, a joint working party of the Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Association “Alcohol and the Young” seems more interested in the base of the problem and dealing with it from the routes. The doctors have first hand experience of the damage alcohol causes such as severe intoxication, injuries, impact on mental health and drug misuse. Focused heavily in this book is the training of professionals, and also suggests a structured programme and what it should include as detailed in chapter 6 (Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Association 1995, p78) where as the second book “Binge Drinking & Youth Culture Alternative Perspectives” edited by Malcolm MacLachlan and Caroline Smyth takes the stances that it is up to the community itself to tackle the problem. This book is to heavily ladened with statistics that it deflects away from the main purpose that binge drinking is a problem in young people and we all need to do something about it.

Here are some hard hitting and factual virals I have found which re-enforces the points made in this piece about youth and binge drinking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96TS9qxnqaM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIQLc1rNgs4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik3eFuvUmNU

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Bibliography

Maclachlan, M. & Smyth, C., eds. (2004) Binge Drinking & Youth Culture, Ireland: The Liffey Press

The Royal College of Physicians, (1995) Alcohol and the Young, London: The Lavenham Press Ltd

Youtube, (October 2009) Binge Drinking - Your Night. Your Choice.

Youtube, (June 2008) Binge Drinking - The Consequences C4 News Article.

Youtube, (June 2008) We will stamp out persistent teen binge-drinking.



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If i was to do further research I would begin by looking more into the other aspect of my design idea which is electronic ID. I would explore what is already in this area of the market and how effective these designs are, also thinking about how they can be inproved or altered to fit into my proposed design idea.