Adolescence and Alcohol Use : Causes and Social Forces Sustaining Drinking Among High School Students in Addis Ababa
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Date
2015-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
There are stages in human development including adolescence, which is a social
construct. At this stage proper follow up and nurturing would be essential for a smooth
transition to the next stages of life. Nonetheless, it is also part of the process to pass through
some challenging experiences and experiments of life; alcohol abuse being amongst the most
eminent concern during their adolescence. This research mainly aims at identifying causes and
forces sustaining alcohol abuse among adolescents in high schools of Addis Ababa and the
various sources of information on alcohol along the issues triggering decision on the start of
drinking alcohol. A mix of four data collection methods, namely in depth interviews, Focus
Group Discussions, structured interview and hidden observation, were used to get all pertinent
data. 10 adolescents took part in the in depth interview and 32 others in the structured intenliew.
A total of7 students from three different schools participated in the FGDs. The major findings of
the research unveiled that adolescents in high schools abuse alcohol because of various social,
economic, and cultural reasons encouraging consumption including peer pressure in the form
fear of isolation, school parties/trips and school surrounding kiosks making them one of the four
drinkers; problem drinkers, social drinkers, fashion drinkers or aspiring drinker. Therefore, it is
of paramount importance to plan interventions to on people and environment around adolescents
to protect them }i-om slithering down to harder psychosocial pathologies even better pull them
out in the long run.
Key words: Alcohol abuse; Adolescent; high school students; soc ial factors
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Keywords
Alcohol abuse, Adolescent, high school students, soc ial factors