‘Why Don’t They Just Do What We Tell Them?’ Different Alcohol Prevention Discourses in Denmark

Abstract

In recent decades great focus has been placed on the excessive consumption of alcohol by young Danes. In this connection, Danish parents have been called upon by the national health authorities to function as prevention workers with a view to reducing their children’s alcohol intake. Parallel to these efforts, and also responding to the increase in drinking by young people, efforts to reduce the harm caused by the drinking practices of adolescents have grown bottom-up among parents. In this article we identify and compare these two seemingly contrasting discourses, both of which influence the prevention field: a public alcohol prevention discourse and an everyday discourse, respectively. The analysis is based on alcohol legislation, public health programmes and national alcohol recommendations, as well as on a qualitative study of a special Danish phenomenon: parties for young people organized by parents. In the two discourses alcohol consumption is presented differently. However, traditionally liberal Danish alcohol policy plays an important role in both: the central feature of this policy relies on individual control rather than on public regulation.