Public Release:  Young people who go out drinking start earlier and consume more and more alcohol

FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology



"The general tendency is to think that university students drink more alcohol than teenagers as they are older and can access it more easily. But this is not true. Males in secondary school and university drink the same amount of alcohol while practicing botellón. The same is the case for females," as explained to SINC by Begoña Espejo Tort, lead researcher of the study at the University of Valencia.


According to results, males drink more and aim to get drunk yet they associate their alcohol intake with the possibility of developing an addiction to a lesser extent than females.

"We have observed that university students progressed to drink more alcohol. When they were adolescents they drank less alcohol and then more when reaching university. Nonetheless, today's adolescents drink the same amount as university students," outlines Espejo.

What will happen to these adolescents in a few years?

If intake levels for secondary school and university students of the same sex are similar, this means that when secondary school students reach the age of 20, the consequences will be much greater than those seen amongst current university students. The expert highlights that this will have negative repercussions "on their studies, their work, and personal relationships and their finances."



That said, the main reason for alcohol consumption in both groups is to have fun. Espejo explains that "drinking is the objective. Only university students mention financial reasons. Almost 70% of students refer to financial reasons for practicing botellón compared to 20% of adolescents.

The consequences are not understood






Begoña Espejo, María Teresa Cortés, Beatriz Martín del Río, José Antonio Giménez, and Consolación Gómez. "Traits that Define the Different Alcohol Intensive Consume Type during the Practice of 'Botellon'. The Spanish Journal of Psychology 15 (1): 256-264, 2012.
