Abstract
Aims
This article analyses how parents discuss norms of youth alcohol debut at meetings of alcohol prevention programmes in schools. The focus is on how different ways of argumentation can help to deal with dilemmas between what parents perceive to be the right age of debut, what they describe as common, and what they consider is possible to realise.
Methods and Data
The data mainly consists of audio recordings of conversations at parent meetings arranged by an alcohol prevention programme in the eighth grade at four schools in four different locations in Norway. The study takes its inspiration from discourse analysis.
Results
The analysis identifies three different patterns of parent discussions about alcohol debut. This information is used to construct three discourses of norms for alcohol debut, namely, a traditional discourse, a discourse of modern upbringing and a discourse of legalisation. Both the traditional opinions, which centre on the significance of the confirmation age, and the modern individualised norms are challenged by arguments for an 18-year limit in these discussions.
Conclusion
The legal age limit of 18 years seemed implicitly or explicitly to be a strong resource of argumentation for formulating common norms for alcohol debut. In the parents’ discussions, too, the consensus seems to be moving towards the 18-year age limit.