Title: Development of Alcohol-Related Aggression Scripts and Alcohol-Related Aggression in Alcohol-Naive Adolescents
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: Alcohol-related aggression is a prominent social problem, with a large proportion of anti-social behaviour, vandalism and assaults being related to alcohol use. One body of popular and academic thought suggests that young people learn that alcohol is linked to aggression through exposure to prominent and popular subcultures, such as 'lad' (and 'ladette') cultures. In these subcultures, alcohol-related aggression is tolerated or encouraged. This idea received support from our pilot study, where 12-14 year old adolescents showed alcohol-related aggression in a laboratory task despite their personal unfamiliarity with drinking. This suggests that their learning of alcohol-related aggression was socially mediated and not caused by personal experience of alcohol. We attribute this learning to social scripts that are understood by a large number of young people. A script is a well-understood sequence of expected social behaviour, One example of a script is understanding the actions required in a common social situation, such as eating in a restaurant. More germaine to alcohol-related aggression is 'lad' (or 'ladette') culture, where scripts for nights out can tie together alcohol and aggression within a rubric of distorted but powerful masculine values emphasizing status, hardness, thrill-seeking and power. The learning of scripts can be disrupted in two ways. First, it may be possible to curtail media or other cultural influences that promote alcohol-aggression scripts. Second, it may be possible to reduce young peoples' vulnerability to script learning or to challenge learning that has taken place. These strategies have proved successful in preventing (non alcohol-related) aggression in young people, but not been applied to alcohol-related aggression. However, we require a comprehensive understanding of how script learning develops before we can intervene to prevent or modify it. To obtain this, we propose to repeat our pilot study with a bigger sample. In particular, we aim to study how ideas about alcohol-related aggression develop in young people, the specific social influences that might be pathogenic and the beliefs that predispose them to alcohol-related aggression. In partnership with Lancashire County Council's Young Persons Directorate, we will conduct qualitative and quantitative studies to achieve these aims A qualitative study will be performed to obtain a fine-grained examination of how 14-16 year olds perceive alcohol-related aggression, how it is perceived in their social networks and the media, and the language that they use to express this. These understandings will inform the development of a quantitative study that seeks to investigate the development of alcohol-related aggression. Specifically, we will examine whether and how exposure to media and peers is associated with script learning, and how script learning is associated with alcohol-related aggression. This study will be conducted over the two-year period that our pilot study and the qualitative research indicate that alcohol-related aggression is likely to develop in young people. We do not plan to test any specific interventions in this research. However, we propose to develop insights as to the forms of intervention that might be applicable. Equally importantly, we aim to inform the wider public debate concerning alcohol use and aggression amongst young people and the social influences that might lead to it.


Research activity codes: 2.3 PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH