Cover not available
Article published In:
Narrative Inquiry
Vol. 30:1 (2020) ► pp.104–121

Drinking stories of emerging adults

| Masaryk University

The period of emerging adulthood is seen as a period of transition from adolescence to adulthood and is associated with increased alcohol consumption. The aim of the study is to understand the meaning of alcohol for emerging adults through stories about alcohol intoxication. Eighty-two drinking stories written by emerging adults were analysed using the narrative oriented inquiry (NOI) method. The results are divided into three layers: (1) contents of the drinking stories, (2) discourses of drinking stories, (3) (re)construction of the identity of emerging adults in drinking stories. I sought to extend the current knowledge on drinking stories in two ways: (a) localization within emerging adulthood, (b) by using NOI methodology. Results show the importance of drinking stories for identity construction of emerging adults and as markers of the beginning and the end of emerging adulthood, albeit not a linear one.

Keywords: alcohol consumption, drinking stories, emerging adulthood, identity, narrative analysis
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Why gender matters?
  • Emerging adulthood
  • Context: The Czech drinking culture
  • Methodology
  • Results
    • Content: Drinking events
    • Discourse of drinking stories
    • Nonconformity stories
    • Friendship stories
    • Fun stories
    • Stories of drinking identity
  • Discussion: Drinking stories are told, so what?
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 10 March 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.18068.loj
References
Allem, J. P., Sussman, S., Soto, D. W., Baezconde-Garbanati, L., & Unger, J. B.
(2016) Role transitions and substance use among Hispanic emerging adults: A longitudinal study using coarsened exact matching. Addictive Behaviors, 581, 95–99. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Arnett, J. J.
(1997) Young people’s conceptions of the transition to adulthood. Youth & Society 29(1), 3–23. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2000) Emerging adulthood: A Theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55(5), 469–480. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2004) Emerging adulthood: The Winding road from the late teens through the twenties. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bakken, S. A., Sandøy, T. A., & Sandberg, S.
(2017) Social identity and alcohol in young adolescence: The Perceived difference between youthful and adult drinking. Journal of Youth Studies, 20(10), 1380–1395. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bamberg, M.
(1997) Positioning between structure and performance. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 7(1–4), 335–342. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bogren, A.
(2014) Sign of the times? Gender, sexuality, and drinking stories. International Journal of Drug Policy, 25(3), 359–360. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bruner, J.
(1991) The Narrative construction of reality. Critical Inquiry, 18(1), 1–21. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bühler-Niederberger, D., & König, A.
(2011) Childhood as a resource and laboratory for the self-project. Childhood, 18(2), 180–195. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Charmaz, K.
(2014) Constructing grounded theory. Los Angeles: Sage.Google Scholar
Chatman, S.
(1978) Story and discourse: Narrative structure in fiction and film. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Cance, J. D., Talley, A. E., Morgan-Lopez, A., & Fromme, K.
(2017) Longitudinal conjoint patterns of alcohol and tobacco use throughout emerging adulthood. Substance Use & Misuse, 52(3), 373–382. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cullen, F.
(2010) ’I was kinda paralytic’: Pleasure, peril and teenage girls’ drinking stories. In J. Jackson, & R. E. P. C. F. Jackson, Girls and education: Continuing, concerns, new agendas (3–16). UK: McGraw-Hill Education.Google Scholar
(2011) “The only time I feel girly is when I go out”: Drinking stories, teenage girls, and respectable femininities. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 16(2), 119–138. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013b) Editorial: Positioning in narrative interaction. Narrative Inquiry, 23(1), 1–15. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Fina, A., & Perrino, S.
(2017) Introduction: Storytelling in the digital age: New challenges. Narrative Inquiry, 27(2), 209–216. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Delucchi, K. L., Matzger, H., & Weisner, C.
(2008) Alcohol in emerging adulthood: 7-year study of problem and dependent drinkers. Addictive Behaviors, 33(1), 134–42. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
ESPAD
(2015) European school survey project on alcohol and other drugs (summary). Retrieved November 11, 2008, from [URL]
Fiala, J., Sochor, O., Klimusová, H., & Homolka, M.
(2017) Alcohol consumption in population aged 25–65 years living in the metropolis of South Moravia, Czech Republic. Central European Journal of Public Health, 25(3), 191–199. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fjær, E. G., & Tutenges, S.
(2017) Departies: Conceptualizing extended youth parties. Journal of Youth Studies, 20(2), 200–215. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Flick, U.
(Ed.) (2013) The SAGE Handbook of qualitative data analysis. Los Angeles: Sage.Google Scholar
Foster, D. W., Young, C. M., & Bärnighausen, T. W.
(2014) Self-Control as a moderator of the relationship between drinking identity and alcohol use. Substance Use, 49(10), 1340–1348. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gates, J. R., Corbin, W. R., & Fromme, K.
(2016) Emerging adult identity development, alcohol use, and alcohol-related problems during the transition out of college. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 30(3), 345–355. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Georgakopoulou, A.
(2013) Building iterativity into positioning analysis: A practice-based approach to small stories and self. Narrative Inquiry, 23(1), 89–110. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goldman, M. S., Greenbaum, P. E., Darkes, J., Brandon, K. O., & Del Boca, F. K.
(2011) How many versus how much: 52 weeks of alcohol consumption in emerging adults. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 25(1), 16–27. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Griffin, C., Szmigin, I., Bengry-Howell, A., Hackley, C., & Mistral, W.
(2013) Inhabiting the contradictions: Hypersexual femininity and the culture of intoxication among young women in the UK. Feminism & Psychology, 23(2), 184–206. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hackley, C., Bengry-Howell, A., Griffin, C., Mistral, W., Szmigin, I., & Tiwsakul, R. A. H. N.
(2013) Young adults and ‘binge’drinking: A Bakhtinian analysis. Journal of Marketing Management, 29(7–8), 933–949. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Harnett, R., Thom, B., Herring, R., & Kelly, M.
(2000) Alcohol in transition: Towards a model of young men’s drinking styles. Journal of Youth Studies, 3(1), 61–77. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hensing, G., & Spak, F.
(2009) Lack of Leadership Confidence Relates to Problem Drinking in Women: Gender Identity, Heavy Episodic Drinking and Alcohol Use Disorders in Swedish Women. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 44(6), 626–33. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hiles, D., & Čermák, I.
(2008) Narrative Psychology. In C. Willig & W. Stainton-Rogers (Eds.), Sage handbook of qualitative research psychology (pp. 147–164). London: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hiles, D. R., Čermák, I., and Chrz, V.
(2009) Narrative oriented inquiry: A Dynamic framework for good practice. In D. Robinson (Ed.), Narrative and Memory (pp. 53–65). Huddersfield: University of Huddersfield Press.Google Scholar
Hnilicová, H., Nome, S., Dobiášová, K., Zvolský, M., Henriksen, R., Tulupova, E., & Kmecová, Z.
(2017) Comparison of alcohol consumption and alcohol policies in the Czech Republic and Norway. Central European Journal of Public Health, 25(2), 145–151. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Huh, J., Zhaoqing, H., Yue, L., Maryann, P., & Chih-Ping, Ch.
(2013) Transitional life events and trajectories of cigarette and alcohol use during emerging adulthood: Latent class analysis and growth mixture modeling. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 74(5), 727–735. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Järvinen, M., & Gundelach, P.
(2007) Teenage drinking, symbolic capital and distinction. Journal of Youth Studies, 10(1), 55–71. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Järvinen, M., & R. Room
(Eds.) (2007) Youth drinking cultures: European experiences (Vol. 131). Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.Google Scholar
Labov, W.
(1972) Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Lyons, A. C., & Willott, S. A.
(2008) Alcohol consumption, gender identities and women’s changing social positions. Sex Roles, 59(9–10), 694–712. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mead, G. H.
(1934) Mind, self and society (Vol. 1111). University of Chicago Press: Chicago.Google Scholar
Niland, P., Lyons, A. C., Goodwin, I., & Hutton, F.
2013 “Everyone can loosen up and get a bit of a buzz on”: Young adults, alcohol and friendship practices. International Journal of Drug Policy, 24(6), 530–537. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Plant, M. A., Plant, M. L., Miller, P., Gmel, G., & Kuntsche, S.
(2009) The social consequences of binge drinking: a comparison of young adults in six European countries. Journal of Addictive Diseases, 28(4), 294–308. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Radcliffe, P., & Measham, F.
(2014) Repositioning the cultural: intoxicating stories in social context. International Journal of Drug Policy, 25(3), 346–347. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Radomski, S. A., Read, J. P., & Bowker, J. C.
(2015) The Role of goals and alcohol behavior during the transition out of college. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 29(1), 142–153. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reckdenwald, A., Ford, J. A., & Murray, B. N.
(2016) Alcohol use in emerging adulthood: Can Moffitt’s developmental theory help us understand binge drinking among college students? Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse, 25(6), 497–503. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reichertz, J.
(2007) Abduction: The logic of discovery of grounded theory. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 11(1), 1–16.Google Scholar
Riessman, C. K.
(1993) Narrative Analysis. Newbury Park: SAGE Publications.Google Scholar
(2008) Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences. Boston: Sage.Google Scholar
Rodriguez, L. M., Litt, D., Neighbors, C., & M. A.
(2016) I’m a social (network) drinker: Alcohol-related Facebook posts, drinking identity, and alcohol use. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 35(2), 107–129. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smith, L. A.
(2015) ‘Oh they drink here harder I think’: Young people and alcohol consumption at three New Zealand secondary school Formals. Journal of Youth Studies, 18(1), 118–132. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stewart, C., & Power, T. G.
(2002) Identifying patterns of adolescent drinking: A Tri-ethnic study. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 63(2), 156–168. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tan, A. S. L.
(2012) Through the Drinking Glass: An Analysis of the Cultural Meanings of College Drinking. Journal of Youth Studies, 15(1), 119–142. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Teunissen, H. A., Spijkerman, R., Prinstein, M. J., Cohen, G. L., Engels, R. C., & Scholte, R. H.
(2012) Adolescents’ Conformity to their peers’ pro-alcohol and anti-alcohol norms: The Power of popularity. Alcoholism: Clinical and experimental research, 36(7), 1257–1267. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tutenges, S., & Rod, M. H.
(2009) ‘We got incredibly drunk… it was damned fun’: Drinking stories among Danish youth. Journal of Youth Studies, 12(4), 355–370. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tutenges, S., & Sandberg, S.
(2013) Intoxicating stories: the characteristics, contexts and implications of drinking stories among Danish youth. International Journal of Drug Policy, 24(6), 538–544. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vander Ven, T.
(2011) Getting wasted: Why college students drink too much and party so hard. New York: NY University Press.Google Scholar
White, H. R., & Jackson, K.
(2004) Social and psychological influences on emerging adult drinking behavior. Alcohol Research, 28(4), 182–190.Google Scholar
Wilsnack, R. W., & Wilsnack, S. C.
(Eds.) (1997) Gender and alcohol: Individual and social perspectives. Piscataway, NJ, US: Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies.Google Scholar
Workman, T.
(2001) Finding the meanings of college drinking: an analysis of fraternity drinking stories. Health Communication, 13(4), 427–47. DOI logoGoogle Scholar