Gender-Based Violence and Alcohol Consumption in Youth Leisure Contexts: Challenges for Spanish Social Work

Abstract

Adolescent leisure contexts in which alcohol are abused have undergone changes in recent decades, with the incorporation of girls/women to more intensive forms of consumption and with new forms of gender-based violence becoming more visible. This article studies the gender differences in the use and enjoyment of time in leisure contexts, the differences in the consumption of alcohol, and the vulnerabilities to which girls/women are subjected to in order to create proposals for Spanish social work intervention. We present empirical data from a qualitative study in which a sample of students from southern Spain have been interviewed in depth with the aim of establishing the connections between alcohol use and abuse and the instances of gender violence that occur in leisure contexts. Our final objective is to reflect upon and make innovative proposals for the role of Spanish professional social workers in prevention and intervention with young alcohol users and in the gender violence that is produced in the spaces of consumption.