Whitaker, Lydia, Brown, Stephen L 
ORCID: 0000-0002-6142-0995, Young, Bridget ORCID: 0000-0001-6041-9901, Fereday, Richard, Coyne, Sarah M and Qualter, Pamela
(2018)
Pervasive, hard-wired and male: Qualitative study of how UK adolescents view alcohol-related aggression.
PLOS ONE, 13 (2).
e0191269-.
Abstract
Laboratory studies of alcohol-inexperienced adolescents show that aggression can be primed by alcohol-related stimuli, suggesting that alcohol-related aggression is partly socially learned. Script theory proposes that alcohol-related aggression 'scripts' for social behaviors are culturally-available and learned by individuals. The purpose of the study was to understand the content and origins of alcohol-related aggression scripts learned by adolescents. This qualitative focus group study of 40 adolescents (ages 14-16 years) examined alcohol-related aggression scripts. Participants believed aggression and severe injury to be pervasive when young people drink. Viewed through a biological lens, participants described aggression as an 'instinctive' and 'hard-wired' male trait facilitated by intoxication. As such, alcohol-related aggression was not seen as intended or personally controllable and participants did not see it in moral terms. Females were largely viewed as either bystanders of inter-male aggression or potential victims of male sexual aggression. Participants attributed their views on the frequency and nature of alcohol-related aggression to current affairs and reality television, which they felt portrayed a reality of which they had little experience. The origins of the explicitly biological frameworks that participants used seemed to lie in pre-existing beliefs about the nature of gender differences. Perceptions of the pervasiveness of male alcohol-related aggression, and the consequent failure to view alcohol-related aggression in moral terms, could dispose some young people to alcohol-related aggression. Interventions could target (1) the beliefs that alcohol-related aggression is pervasive and uncontrollable in males, and (2) participants' dysfunctional views of masculinity that underpin those beliefs.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Humans, Adolescent Behavior, Aggression, Alcohol Drinking, Adolescent, Male, United Kingdom |
| Depositing User: | Symplectic Admin |
| Date Deposited: | 09 Feb 2018 16:43 |
| Last Modified: | 19 Jan 2023 06:41 |
| DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0191269 |
| Open Access URL: | http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=1... |
| Related URLs: | |
| URI: | https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3017802 |
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