Alcohol consumption among university students: a typology of consumption to aid the tailoring of effective public health policy
| dc.contributor.author | Davoren, Martin P. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Cronin, Mary | |
| dc.contributor.author | Perry, Ivan J. | |
| dc.contributor.author | O'Connor, Karl | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2016-11-29T16:31:42Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2016-11-29T16:31:42Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2016-11-15 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2016-11-29T16:23:17Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | Objective: Elevated levels of alcohol consumption among university students are well documented. Policymakers have attempted to combat this issue at a university, national and international level. Tailoring public health policy to effectively tackle alcohol use is crucial. Using Q-methodology, the current study aims to develop a typology of alcohol consumption in the Irish university student population. Setting: A large Irish university. Participants Hundreds of possible statements on types of consumption were generated from a systematic review and a set of one-on-one interviews. These were reduced to 36 statements, 6 statements which define each of the 6 previously defined consumption types. Participants were advised to scan through the 36 statements and fill the statements into a ‘forced choice, standardised distribution’. Following this, a 45–90 min interview was conducted with students to illuminate subjectivity surrounding alcohol consumption. Analysis was conducted using PQ Method and NVivo software. Principal component analysis, followed by varimax rotation, was conducted to uncover the final factor information. Results: In total, 43 students completed the Q-study: 19 men and 24 women. A typology describing 4 distinct groupings of alcohol consumer was uncovered: the guarded drinker, the calculated hedonist, the peer-influenced drinker and the inevitable binger. Factor loadings of each of the consumer groupings were noted for type description. Conclusions: This is the first study to propose ideal types of alcohol consumption among a university student population. Further research is required to investigate the degree to which each of these ideal types is subscribed. However, this typology, in addition to informing public policy and strategies, will be a valuable analytic tool in future research. | en |
| dc.description.status | Peer reviewed | en |
| dc.description.version | Published Version | en |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | en |
| dc.identifier.citation | Davoren, M. P., Cronin M., Perry I. J. and O’Connor, K. (2016) ‘Alcohol consumption among university students: a typology of consumption to aid the tailoring of effective public health policy’, BMJ Open, 6:e011815. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2016-011815 | en |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-011815 | |
| dc.identifier.endpage | e011815-10 | en |
| dc.identifier.issn | 2044-6055 | |
| dc.identifier.issued | 11 | en |
| dc.identifier.journaltitle | BMJ Open | en |
| dc.identifier.startpage | e011815-1 | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10468/3325 | |
| dc.identifier.volume | 6 | en |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | BMJ Publishing Group: | en |
| dc.rights | © 2016, The Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work noncommercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ | en |
| dc.subject | Alcohol consumption | en |
| dc.subject | University students | en |
| dc.subject | Public health | en |
| dc.subject | Ireland | en |
| dc.title | Alcohol consumption among university students: a typology of consumption to aid the tailoring of effective public health policy | en |
| dc.type | Article (peer-reviewed) | en |
