Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To find out the motivation (attitudes, beliefs and experiences) behind adolescent alcohol consumption. DESIGN: Qualitative methodology, explanatory method, using conversational techniques (discussion group with 6-8 adolescents/group, 50min duration) recorded by videotape during the school year 2008/09. PARTICIPANTS AND CONTEXT: Adolescents 12-18 years-old of a middle-class urban school (Jaen-Spain). Purposive sampling stratified by level of education; heterogeneity criteria: sex and alcohol consumption. METHOD: Process of content analysis: coding, triangulation of categories and obtain/verify results. RESULTS: Six group interviews, including 44 teenagers (54% males). The rate of consumption varies with age, and there are gender differences in motivations. Alcohol is related to social and leisure activities from early family experiences, and the nightlife on entering school and as peer relationships increase. The preferred social models are university students, with excessive consumption at the weekend that is understood as an act of independence. Rejection of authority figures (teachers/health), critical attitude to the received information (content only, without motivational elements) and failure in education on this topic. There is high accessibility for the purchase of alcohol, a sense of controlled consumption and a tendency to understand acute poisoning as part of leisure. The adolescents related alcohol consumption, tobacco and drug use (except for minor discrepancies). CONCLUSIONS: The intervention on alcohol consumption of adolescents should incorporate their motivation to achieve greater efficiency.