Sociology Essay: Culture and Teen Drinking

This essay examines the relationship between culture and teenage alcohol consumption. It explores how cultural norms and social practices influence drinking behaviors, contrasting moderate and immoderate drinking cultures. The essay discusses the role of alcohol in socialization, celebration, and the normalization of intoxication in certain cultures. It highlights the contrasting drinking cultures of Australia and America, noting the prevalence of binge drinking in the latter and its significant health and economic consequences. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of individual choice and responsibility in navigating societal pressures surrounding alcohol consumption.

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Sociology

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Body...........................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The entire essay will be highlighting and discuss the central topic that is the relationship
between culture and the choices of a teenager for drinking alcohol. It has been observed that
culture plays an important role for provoking an individual to drink alcohol in access.
Furthermore, alcohol also has a vital role in terms of offering one of the few occasions in the
lives of the young people for maintaining group bonding, relationships, and fun. On the other
hand, the leisure choices of the young individuals have always attracted the concern and their
drinking behavior is mainly shaped by the huge amount of cultural norms around alcohol.
Body
Most of the researchers have found out that getting intoxicated is a part of their culture at
present. Throwing light on the above-mentioned statement it can be said that one of the main
cultural drivers for excessive drinking was the young adults of where they were at during the
course of their life. On the contrary, a time of consuming a lot of alcohol in the young people
is considered to be normal but there are long-term risks associated with it. Furthermore, the
socializing of the young people has increasingly developed one of the culture that forces them
the need of drinking for belonging and participating. Culture is one of the most significant
elements for influencing an individual to drink in access. The drunken aggression is most
commonly observed in some of the cultures abundantly and researches have also found out
that worldwide such behavior is quite rare even among the young people who drink a great
deal. There are some of the anthropological studies that have highlighted the fact that the
violence related to the alcohol is mainly a learned behavior not at all inevitable outcome of
consuming the alcohol (Griffin and et al., 2009).

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Alcohol has always played one of the most important roles in each and every culture of the
human beings since previous times. There are also a lot of evidences that suggests that the
experiences of the culture land up to a lot of alcohol-related problems than the others. The
young people in a lot of cultures are introduced towards drinking in the early life, as a part of
their normal part of their day-to-day living. On the other hand, there are some other cultures
that teach their children to drink in a moderate and responsible manner and there is other
culture that does not have any kind of barriers for their children in terms of drinking.
In some of the cultures drinking with regards to the young people is considered to be an
absolute necessity and ritual. Alcohol in that culture is regarded as celebration so young
people drink a lot of alcohol and their everyday drinking signifies celebratory drinking.
Although alcohol is connected with celebration still but it can be argued that celebration is
not invoked as the justification for each and every drinking occasion (Advocat & Lindsay,
2015).
Throwing light on the above-mentioned discussion it can be said that there are two types of
cultures mainly the moderate-drinking cultures and immoderate-drinking cultures. In the
moderate-drinking cultures consuming alcohol is accepted and it is also governed by the
social custom so that the individuals such as the young people learn some of the constructive
norms with regards to their drinking behavior. Furthermore, in this type of culture the people
are also taught the existence of bad and good drinking styles, along with the difference
between them. Lastly, this culture also does not view culture as personal control, skills
because consuming alcohol in a responsible manner is taught. On the other hand, in the
immoderate drinking culture alcohol is mainly observed as one of the main elements that
overpower the capacity of an individual for self-management so drinking is itself an excuse
for huge amount. In the Australian culture drinking is quite normal and it is a social practice
that is strongly connected with the celebration and pleasure and they are not always harmful

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in nature. The drinking cultures are quite heterogeneous as well as subject to the intensive
forces of the market but they are always distinct in a social manner. The mainstream
Australian culture is quite contradictory about the alcohol. Some of the studies highlighted
with different samples and methods and makes sure that a rich amount of the culture of
Australia about drinking and context as well as enhances confidences in the common
findings.
This particular article highlighted the fact that their own experiences has been used in terms
of using Facebook for indicating some of the new pleasures that takes place between the
drinking cultures and the online media. It can be said that the alcoholic beverages as well as
the social attitudes towards drinking vary all across the globe as discussed in the entire study
and nearly each and every civilization has discovered in an independent manner about the
processes of distilling spirits and brewing beers. In the westernized cultures the arrival of the
good news is celebrated by drinking and the young people gets motivated from their parents
to drink. However, most of the young people in the recent times are drinking because it is a
cultural trend and they do not require any type of occasion for drinking (Lindsay, 2010).
On the other hand, culture is regarded as the main villain in the America as it is killing most
of the young people with regards to drinking. Research work highlights that are 5.2 million
people who are aged between 12 and 20 that are considered to be the binge drinkers
(Kuntsche and Cooper, 2010). Furthermore, as per the National Survey on Drug Use and
Health binge drinking is referred to the phenomenon where an individual consumes above
four drinks within 2 hours for the female and more than 5 drinks for the male. In this specific
country the culture has itself transformed itself into the binge culture and a lot of young
people have accepted this kind of social norm with regards to drinking. There are some of the
popular studies that have indicated the fact that there is a strong correlation that exist between
in taking the alcohol in a heavy amount as well as the negative side effects on the health that

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causes liver disease, cancer and also damages the brain. And it is needless to say that for
Americans it is the high time that their culture needs to be changed in terms of reducing and
eliminating the drinking among the youth as alcohol is stated as the fourth leading killer in
the America. There are several instances that states that the drinking culture that cost
America almost $300 billion for the alcohol misuse problems.
It is quite evident that the binge drinking culture is not only rising in America but in the rest
of the globe at an alarming rate and there is a cultural shift and more young people are
involved in drinking. The percentage of young individuals who are drinking are not altering
much but among the drinkers researchers see a lot more binge as well as heavy drinking. The
drinking culture in America is said to be going hand in hand with the capitalistic agenda.
Furthermore, the Bars needs to be equally blamed with the culture for influencing the young
people to drink alcohol by offering them happy hours and by this young people are much
more influenced for drinking as they are getting the alcohol at low-cost.
A lot of people have also argued with the fact that young people in the Australia inhabit a
culture that is related to the intoxication. However, it should be noted that there is limited
amount of research with regards to how young individuals finds resistances within this
culture. Some of the researches have also found out that there is strong social imperative for
the youths for drinking to intoxication at the social events. A normalized culture with regards
to intoxication is now one of the main things to a lot of youth’s social lives, and that also
plays a vital role in the night-time economy of the countries across the globe (Herring,
Bayley and Hurcombe, 2014).
Conclusion
It has been observed that culture plays one of the most important roles for excessive drinking
was the young adults of where they were at during the course of their life. On the contrary, a

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time of consuming a lot of alcohol in the young people is considered to be normal but there
are long-term risks associated with it. Furthermore, the socializing of the young people has
increasingly developed one of the culture that forces them the need of drinking for belonging
and participating. Culture is one of the most significant elements for influencing an individual
to drink in access. To conclude it can be said from a personal point of view that it is also the
responsibility of a young individual to decide drink or not to drink and it should not be under
the society’s pressure at any cost.

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References
Advocat, J., & Lindsay, J. (2015). To drink or not to drink? Young Australians negotiating
the social imperative to drink to intoxication. Journal of Sociology, 51(2), 139-153.
Griffin, C., Bengry-Howell, A., Hackley, C., Mistral, W. and Szmigin, I., 2009. Every time I
do it I absolutely annihilate myself': Loss of (self-) consciousness and loss of memory in
young people's drinking narratives. Sociology, 43(3), pp.457-476.
Herring, R., Bayley, M. and Hurcombe, R., 2014. “But no one told me it’s okay to not drink”:
a qualitative study of young people who drink little or no alcohol. Journal of Substance
Use, 19(1-2), pp.95-102.
Kuntsche, E. and Cooper, M.L., 2010. Drinking to have fun and to get drunk: Motives as
predictors of weekend drinking over and above usual drinking habits. Drug and alcohol
dependence, 110(3), pp.259-262.
Lindsay, J., 2010. Healthy living guidelines and the disconnect with everyday life. Critical
Public Health, 20(4), pp.475-487.