Social representations of adolescents about alcohol consumption: implications from family relations

The study aimed at identifying the social representations of adolescents about alcoholic beverages as well as analyzing the implications of family relations on the construction of such representations. The descriptive qualitative research that was conducted adopted lifehistory as a method. Forty adolescents from the city of Belem, located in the state of Para, were interviewed. They used alcoholic beverages and their ages ranged between 12 and 20 years old. Four analytical categories emerged from the results: the raising by mother and father; controlled and allowed freedom during childhood; good relationship with parents; conflicting relationship with parents. It was identified that, for the adolescents, alcoholic beverages are associated with the search for new experiences, independence, addiction, family conflicts, fights and separations. It is concluded that more studies about the relationship involving adolescence, alcohol consumption and family relations are necessary in addition to this one, in order to support the establishment of preventive measures related to alcoholism in educational public health actions.