Drinking at home

This section focuses on drinking at home, which emerged as a special form of venue for drinking alcohol. It served a number of purposes and was spoken about in a variety of ways, often linked to the type of student and/or the type of home the student inhabited. Thus sometimes the drinking reflected their own preferences, at other times it reflected those of others in the home.

3.3.3.1 Familial patterns

Where students were living in the familial home, drinking tended to reflect the pattern of drinking within the family. Some would drink with their parents, usually over a meal. Others referred to their parents drinking pattern, which had influenced their own drinking behaviour, so they might drink of an evening or drink to relax when they came in from the day’s activities. Some spoke of the socialisation effects of alcohol use at home and the influence that it had on their own drinking behaviour „I‟ve always, with my family at, we‟ve

always drunk at home … I go down to the pub with my dad very often in the evening for a couple of pints and a chat, we always had family parties where we‟ve drunk, so I‟ve always had, I‟ve always been drinking‟. For others who didn’t drink alcohol, the family’s pattern

was also important. Their non-drinking often had its origin in the family approach to alcohol and the broader religious and ethnic culture in which the family was embedded. Occasionally it was influenced by their experiences of dealing with the adverse consequences of the drinking of other family members.

3.3.3.2 Relationships

Some more mature students had encountered problems in their relationship as a consequence of their partner’s alcohol use. The problems tended to occur when one partner drank alcohol more often than the other and particularly if the drinker began to spend more time and money drinking than the student considered appropriate. Whilst students reported that some drinking could be excused on the basis of their circumstances, for example, „I also know that he has a

very stressful job and if on a Friday afternoon all he wants to do is chill out with a few pints and his mates, that‟s fair enough‟, not all could and when the drinking became more extended

and/or excessive then their tolerance was likely to be reduced. Sometimes students reported that this led to situations where they could sit down and talk it through and things changed, but at other times the drinking was more embedded and the relationship faltered.

3.3.3.3 Pre-loading

Home drinking, particularly for the traditional student away from home and living in student accommodation, often occurred in order to ‘pre-load’ with cheaper alcohol before a night out to ‘get tanked up and then go out‟. Many would drink more at home than they would when they actually went out as illustrated by this male student’s account „I normally get very drunk

like, just doing a shot a minute and I‟ll get really drunk then I‟ll go out and I don‟t really need any money, just taxis, like one or two drinks when I‟m there cos I‟m already drunk so I‟m fine‟. Again, as mentioned earlier in the section on cost, the motivation here was the

unaffordable price of alcohol in the licensed venues as is exemplified by the following extract

„I always drink before I go out because I can‟t afford drinks when I‟m out‟ or because it „saves money‟. Many reported drinking alcohol as part of getting ready for a night out; it was

part of the routine so they would have a couple of drinks before getting dressed up or whilst they were waiting for the taxi to arrive to take them to the venue. But here too they often tended to discriminate according to where they were going for their night out. Thus some would not drink at home when they were going out to a pub, but they would start drinking at home if they were going into town for a night out.

3.3.3.4 Socialising at home

For other students, drinking at home was the main focus - they were happy to share a bottle of wine with a friend and have a night in socialising. Some referred specifically to „having a

girlie night in‟ when they would order in a pizza and have it with a bottle of wine, perhaps

whilst watching the TV or just chatting. Men too had a similar pattern of drinking in with their friends, but this tended to revolve around sporting activities -„you could be watching a

football game so you watch it at home and have a drink at home with your mates‟. Whilst

much of the drinking at home involved companionship, there were some participants who drank alcohol on their own „I‟ll have a can or so of Strongbow in a night’ just to relax or ‘chill out‟. Others would seldom drink out but would drink in a home situation if it was a birthday or a house party or other form of celebration.

For some students, socialising at home involved drinking games. This tended to occur in halls and respondents justified it saying that it was a good way to socialise and get to know people. Games involved ‘truth and dare’ or ‘spin the bottle’ and alcohol was viewed as a necessary accompaniment, presumably to reduce inhibitions and facilitate interaction. Home drinking also involved house parties. These usually took place at the weekend, and sometimes occurred locally and at other times some distance away, for example in London. Such parties were often viewed positively because people were drinking and ‘mixing with

friends or with friends of friends‟.

To summarise, a high proportion of the students across the focus groups spoke of alcohol consumption within the home, the term home relating to both the familial home and to their accommodation whilst at university where the two differed. Drinking was bound up with those who also lived at home, the nature of relationships and with the students’ broader social life.