Alkohol -en socialt given dryck? : Hur omgivning, kontext och identitet kan påverka studenters uppfattning av alkoholbruk.

The overall aim of this study is to gain an understanding of how student’sexperiences influence their perceptions about the use of alcohol during the study years. We focused on various factors that might have an impact on the individual’sperception and alcohol intake. These are: environmental influences such as family, school and friends and their dominant norms, context such as place and time in life and how individual and social identity affects student’sperceptions. The study is based on six empirical interviews, where quota sampling has been used for selecting participants. The theoretical framework is predominantly established in terms of norms, social deviance, group and self identity. Our findings show that the perception of alcohol and thereby the alcohol use has a connection to group identification, family relations, the student culture and that there are certain patterns related to individual and social identity aspects. We also noticed a difference in the perception of alcohol use over time, the primary focus of the differentiation suggesting that alcohol played a more significant part in the early stages of university studies