Alkoholvanor och studentlivet : En kvalitativ studie om studentkulturens påverkan på unga studenters alkoholvanor

The drinking culture within the college life has been a recognized problem for long. Despite this, students still witness a continuing of the perceived peer pressure to consume alcohol. Since the college years are an important part of the life that youths look forward to at an early age it is often difficult to go against the norm they find at each university. This research aims to examine the effect that the social student culture has on the alcoholic consumption of young students. Young students find themselves in a precarious situation on the issue of alcohol use when they start their studies at a university-level. Earlier research indicates that young adults are in a danger zone regarding the use of alcoholic-beverages and this also applies to students. Thus putting young students in a particularly risky zone in this issue. Based on the research we have studied and the theoretical framework that we felt were most suitable for our research we will try to gain a deeper understanding of the choices that the students are making and the reasoning behind these decisions. We used a qualitative method to approach our issues and semi- structured interviews in the interviews that we did with four students from two different universities. Our results and thus the conclusion of the thesis is that the decisions that students make to a large extent is influenced by the social student culture and the view on alcohol that the students perceive that the universities are sending out. The lack of a stance by the university against alcohol legitimizes the current drinking culture that is prevailing in the college life and amplifies the image of the alcohol-centric student culture