Citation

Yang Y, Tang L. Health Educ. Res. 2018; 33(4): 271-279.

Affiliation

Department of Communication, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/her/cyy016

PMID

29868824

Abstract

Alcohol consumption poses significant health and safety risks to women. Understanding why women drink and how they experience drinking is the first step in creating efficacious interventions and effective social support programs. Presented here is a qualitative study examining stories women told about drinking on a blog: drinkingdiariesk.com. Eighty-nine stories categorized as 'in-depth, personal and insightful essays' were analysed and four narratives were identified about women's drinking in different stages in their lives: youth (narrative of good girl and narrative of bad girl), adulthood (narrative of pleasure) and old age (narrative of sin). Women constructed their relationships with alcohol in these different life stages, conforming to or rebelling against traditional gender roles. The narratives about drinking among young women and older women were inflicted with adultism and ageism. Practically, this study pointed out the specific stereotypes surrounding younger and older women with a drinking problem, which could inform future intervention campaigns about women's drinking.

Language: en