Abstract
Binge drinking in adolescents is a worldwide public healthcare problem. The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions about determinants of binge drinking in Spanish adolescents from the perspective of adolescents and parents. A qualitative study using fourteen semi-structured focus groups of adolescents was conducted during the 2014/2015 school year (n = 94), and four with parents (n = 19), based on the I-Change Model for health behaviour acquisition. Students had a low level of knowledge and risk perception and limited self-efficacy. Girls reported more parental control, and when they get drunk, society perceives them worse. Adolescents suggested focus preventive actions to improve self-efficacy and self-esteem. Parents were permissive about alcohol drinking but rejected binge drinking. They offered alcohol to their children, mainly during celebrations. A permissive family environment, lack of control by parents, adolescents’ low-risk perception, low self-esteem and self-efficacy, as well as the increase of binge drinking in girls as part of the reduction of the gender gap, emerge as risk factors for binge drinking. Future health programmes aimed at reducing binge drinking should focus on enhancing motivational factors, self-esteem, and self-efficacy in adolescents; supervision and parental control; as well as pre-motivational factors by increasing knowledge and risk awareness, considering gender differences.
Highlights
Binge drinking (BD) is the most common risky drinking behaviour among adolescents, which has raised concern in many European countries [1,2,3]
As we found contradictory findings in the different studies, we highlight the importance of continuing with the research on parental views of alcohol consumption and BD in their children, which could guide the development of effective health programmes to address BD [19]
The objective of this paper is to explore the perceptions about determinants of BD in Spanish adolescents from the perspective of adolescents and parents, considering gender differences and whether they are engaging in BD
Summary
Binge drinking (BD) is the most common risky drinking behaviour among adolescents, which has raised concern in many European countries [1,2,3]. BD consists of alcohol consumption that results in a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 g/dL or more within a period of 2 h [1,2]. There is a lack of consensus as to what is considered an SDU, which could be the result of the cross-country variability of criteria regarding the amount of alcohol consumption per episode [1,3,6,7], as well as a lack of consensus on the estimated average BAC in the adolescent population [5]. BD is considered the consumption of five or more and four or more SDUs of alcohol by men and women, respectively, in a short space of time, or on a single occasion [1,2,4,8,9], this definition being consistent with Spanish epidemiological data from the survey. Public Health 2020, 17, 3551; doi:10.3390/ijerph17103551 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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