Wine lobby organizes conference on Cultural differences and the role of education

The presentations played during the conference are not attached but are available upon request.

On October 23 the Wine Information Council in association with Comite Europeen des Entreprises vins (CEEV) organised a conference on “Cultural differences and the role of education: How do they affect drinking behaviours in Europe?, and what does it mean for EU alcohol policy?”

The conference gathered representatives from the commission, permanent representations and stakeholders to discuss drinking behaviors amongst young people in Europe and the implications for EU alcohol policy. The event was divided into three sets; the context of drinking amongst young people, the patterns of drinking and cultural differences and a roundtable to discuss prevention.

Ursula Fradera from the Wine Information Council opened the conference and explained that the WIC initiative was set up in order to promote safe behavior, to raise awareness and reduce alcohol harm. She then concluded explaining who can be a member of the council, how it works and the reasons for joining the WIC.

Dr. Adrian Furnham Professor of psychology from the university college London, acting as a moderator of the event, then took the floor to open the first session. He explained that the aim of the conference was to understand differences in drinking behavior across Europe through social, cultural and historical analysis.

Dr. Rachel Herring, senior research fellow at the school of social sciences, Middlesex University, performed a presentation on cultural aspects of drinking amongst young people.

She started her presentation explaining that she modified the original title of her presentation by removing “binge” because as she explained, it is not the only way of drinking amongst young people. As a background, she explained that drinking culture in Europe have been documented through studies, comparing the north and the south, dry and wet countries, wine/beer/spirits, and stated that it is probably more of a mix nowadays.

First asking the question of who young people are, she explained that it is a difficult question and that it is more about a period of changes. Young people's drinking is a matter of social, political and societal concern, and today there is a particular focus on drunkenness and associated harms to the health and well being of individuals, families and communities. During her presentation she introduced different sources of information (surveys and qualitative studies) and presented the findings and what is known regarding young people's drinking behavior. According to these studies, drinking is a sociable leisure activity. Young people drink in a variety of ways depending on context, and their drinking patterns reflect their family background, life stage, socio-economic circumstances and previous experiences with alcohol. Alcohol appears to play a significant and symbolic role in how it shapes social relations and social identity.

She concluded by explaining that there is a new culture of intoxication that she described with different types of behaviors and characteristics, and which is mediatized. Moreover she insisted on the necessity to further explore this subject, as many differences exist between countries, regions, and within generations. She also explained that nothing is immutable or universal.

Dr. Torsten Kolind associate professor center for Alcohol and Drug Research, University of Aarhus, Denmark, gave a presentation on new ways of socializing youngsters into becoming competent alcohol consumers.

Torsten Kolind, after recalling a few facts and figures about alcohol in Denmark, presented a Danish experience of involving parents and parent associations into drinking education. Parents associations organize and frame parties for 14-18 years old where the consumption of alcohol in safe conditions is allowed. This approach has the aim of making young people about aware their drinking limits in a safe environment, instead of letting them experiencing alcohol and drunkenness in an unsafe context. The idea is to teach young people how to manage alcohol and to make them being able to socialize safely.

According to Dr Kolind, these parent-organized parties reflect the general processes of socialization in modern societies. Giving a few examples of the discussion he had with parents and the associations during the course of the study, he explained that these parties are seen as, and want to be, dress rehearsal parties. As a conclusion, he made the remark that this is a way for youngsters to develop own harm-reducing strategies, and proposed two questions for further discussion: could this be considered a bottom-up alcohol education? and, should these parent-organized youth parties be run by professionals?

Dr. Stephan Quensel, department of sociology and social sciences of the university of Bremen/Bremen institute for drug research, presented a comparative study across five cities in Europe on the drinking patterns among 15-year olds.

Before presenting the results of the study he explained that drinking alcohol – and especially drinking wine – is a genuine social-cultural action, it is not drinking pure ethanol. This applies for socially accepted and for deviant consumptions, for abstinence and for excessive drinking, as for adult or for youth drinking patterns. Presenting the study he explained and insisted on the fact that every action is influenced by a complex social context. Drinking is not a pure act but a mix with others actions, and alcohol consumption is part of a context. The aim of the study was also to understand how the adult culture looks at the youth culture and how the youth culture looks at itself. The study shows that there are differences between genders and cities. For example, young Italians drink larger quantities per year, but are less subject to binge drinking, as drunkenness is not well-perceived among young Italians.

Placing alcohol in context, the study shows a correlation between drinking behavior and outdoor activities as well as sexual activity, smoking cigarettes and/or cannabis. Regarding delinquency and use of medication, the study underlines differences between boys and girls' behaviors. While boys are more likely to be subject to delinquency behaviors as their alcohol consumption increases, girls are more likely to use medication. Stephan Quensel here sees a difference in the mean of drinking. For girls, it is more about life style, while for boys, it refers to competition.

Analysing the social function of alcohol, Stephan Quensel highlighted the existence of four groups: abstainer normal, drinking normal, abstainer isolated, and drink & school problem. He noted the lack of interest for the group of abstainer isolated. As a conclusion, Stephan Quensel explained that all preventions that preach abstinence remind one of trying to teach youngsters Mozart or Bartok instead of Techno or House. And that it promotes depressive self-images and overlooks the real problems behind some drinking excesses.

Dr. Marie Choquet, epidemiologist, research director, INSERM, focused on the existence of a reduction in the cultural gap in Europe.

She first explained that adolescence is a transitional period that takes place from the age of 11 to 20. She explained that there is a stigmatization of adolescence and that there is often confusion between the use of alcohol and alcohol use disorders. On the basis of the results of to two studies conducted on 16 year olds, she tried to respond to nine generally accepted ideas.

Problem drinking is a characteristic of adolescents in Europe: study shows little proportion of drinking problems
Young people drink with the intention to become drunk: figures show that it is not the intention

Over time there is an increase of problem drinking among young people in Europe: every country is different
Adolescents' preferred beverage is beer, whatever the country: figures show differences between countries.
Alcohol consumption begins very early in life and at increasingly younger ages: statistics show that drinking behavior start around 15, and that if in some member states there is an increase; there is a decrease in others.

Boys are more likely to drink alcohol than girls: the difference is not important for normal consumption but relevant for high consumption.

Over time, there is a reduction of the gender gap: there is no real change in the gender gap
Consumption is higher in countries where alcohol is easily available: the perception of availability is almost the same in every country.

Alcohol consumption is an isolated behavior: those who have alcohol problems are more likely to have other problems.
As a conclusion she explained that problem drinking is not a characteristic of adolescence, but of “some” adolescents and that there are differences between countries. She also asked questions of a possible comparison with young adults, about the meaning (positive and negative) of consumption and drunkenness, and about the link to culture.

Dr. Franca Beccaria, sociologist, Eclectica (research and communication) Italy, made a presentation on new patterns versus old patterns in Italy: what do we know about changes and the influence of the cultural context?

Franca Beccaria started explaining that the general alcohol consumption in Italy has decreased over the past decades. Beer consumption has increased between 1960 and 2003 while consumption of wine, which is still the favorite alcoholic beverage in Italy, has decreased.

This evolution took place in the absence of restrictive policies. The decrease in alcohol consumption has not been homogeneous for all the categories.

Franca Beccaria noticed that the number of non-drinkers decreased, while the number of moderate drinkers increased and the number of drinkers increased, especially among young people and in the female population. In order to explain these trends, Franca Beccaria presented the results of a study that focused on the influence of biographies on drinking patterns. Explaining a few findings, she said that the drop in consumption can be attributed to a decrease in both frequency and quantities consumed. Alcohol consumption appears to be less an element of socialization than part of a meal. She identified important differences between the two age-ranges studied (40-45 and 65-70 years old) that can be understood if placed in a historical context.

She then presented more in-depth data showing a complexity in drinking careers function to the generation, gender and social context. What have not changed are the alcohol representations, the socialization process, and the acceptance of drunkenness following certain rules and being a rite for social identity definition concerning first youth drunkenness.

On the other hand, the first drinking experience for young people more often happens outside with friends than in the family context and tolerance toward alcohol abuse has increased. Drinking styles have also become more complex, including a feminisation of consumption.

As a conclusion, she tried to reply to the question: Does wet drinking culture exit yet? According to Franca Beccaria, globalization of drinking styles among young people is a complex issue. Meanings and rules of wet drinking culture have been learned also among young people. As for alcohol abuse: it does not have a transgressive meaning, it is regulated by informal rules, and lasts for a short period of life.

The presentations were followed by a roundtable, an occasion for the participants to ask their questions to the panelists.

The roundtable was expected to focus on prevention. Questions gave an occasion to discuss the difficulty to communicate the results presented during the conference, as the issue is complex and do not permit easy solutions. The importance of drinking education was also raised as parents and family have a role to play. There is a complexity of drinking behaviors and the panelists insisted on the existence of youth cultures and subcultures. To conclude, the panelists agreed that restrictive policies only have a small effect. Drinking culture and historic trajectories need to be considered before envisaging alcohol policies. Good behavior should be encouraged.