Drinking styles of the young generations: twenty years' qualitative research

Abstract

The article analyses the complexity of the relationship between young people and alcohol and how this varies over time by using a longitudinal comparison of qualitative studies carried out in Italy. This study highlights the fact that alcoholic drinks remain central in young people's identity-building, which begins at a young age in the long alcohol socialization process within the family context. The young people from the new millennium show more similarities than differences than those from twenty years before, although noticeable is the loss of the transgressive value of drinking in favour of more exploratory and innovative styles.