Projects

Y-DiD: Youth Drinking in Decline

The Youth Drinking In Decline (Y-DID) project aimed to provide the most detailed analysis to date of the nature and drivers of recent reductions in alcohol use among 11-24 year-olds in England.

Introduction

Alcohol consumption has fallen sharply among young people in the UK and we don't know why. Despite comparable trends across Europe, North America and Australia, we know little about this transformation in youth behaviour or what factors are driving it. 

In particular, we know little about which young people are drinking less, whether youth drinking is concentrating within particular high-risk groups, whether new inequalities are emerging and how all of this relates to wider changes in youth culture.

The Youth Drinking In Decline (Y-DID) project was a four-year Wellcome Trust-funded collaboration between two research teams at the University of Sheffield: the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group and the Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth. It aimed to provide the most detailed analysis to date of the nature and drivers of recent reductions in alcohol use among 11-24 year-olds in England.

The project was divided into two primary work packages which are described below. These were brought together in a third integrative work package to produce mixed-method findings.

Work Packages

Aim

To describe and test explanations for the decline in youth drinking in the UK.

Outline

Work Package 1 used a series of national and international survey datasets to explore which young people are drinking less and why. We examined trends in abstention, how often and how much young people drink, the characteristics of their drinking occasions and the shifting relationships between alcohol use and young people's other health and leisure-related activities. We also examined relationships between youth drinking and factors that may explain the decline including social norms, access to alcohol and increased use of internet-related technologies

Aim

To understand changes and continuities in youth drinking and its relationship to broader youth culture.

Outline

Work Package 2 collected data from young people and adults in the Sheffield area belonging to one of four age cohorts. These data provided insights into how the position of alcohol within broader youth culture has evolved over time, what youth drinking has looked like for different generations and why change has happened.

Research team

Professor John Holmes
Dr Laura Fenton
Dr Abi Stevely

Key project information

This project is funded by Wellcome.

Dates

April 2018 – March 2023

Funding

£607,801

Principal investigator

John Holmes, University of Sheffield

Institutions involved

University of Sheffield

Key contact

john.holmes@sheffield.ac.uk

Media coverage

Youth drinking is declining – myths about the trend, busted

Laura Fenton writes for The Conversation

6 February 2024

Forget Dry January – young Brits are giving up on booze altogether. Here's the sobering reason why

Laura Fenton speaks to the Big Issue

17 January 2024

Why Gen Z are giving up booze

John Holmes speaks on The Times 'Stories of our times' podcast

August 2023

Publications

Dunphy J, Vieira E, Stevely AK, Livingston M, Vashishtha R, Rivelin K, & Holmes J (2024) Have declines in the prevalence of young adult drinking in English-speaking high-income countries followed declines in youth drinking? A systematic review Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09687637.2024.2335989

Dunphy J, Vieira E, Stevely AK, Livingston M, Vashishtha R, Rivelin K, & Holmes J (2024) Have declines in the prevalence of young adult drinking in English-speaking high-income countries followed declines in youth drinking? A systematic review Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09687637.2024.2335989

Stevely AK, Gray LA, Fairbrother H, Fenton L, Henney M, Holmes J (2023) A latent class analysis of change and continuity in adolescent health and wellbeing in England during the decline in youth alcohol consumption: a repeat cross-sectional study Preventive Medicine Reports DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102481

Fenton L, Fairbrother H, Whitaker V, Henney M, Stevely AK, Holmes J (2023) Geographies of alcohol and generation: Examining the decline in youth drinking in England through a spatial lens Drug and Alcohol Review DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.13710

Fenton L, Fairbrother H, Whitaker V, Henney M, Stevely A, Holmes J (2023) 'When I came to university, that's when the real shift came': alcohol and belonging in English higher education during a decline in youth drinking Journal of Youth Studies DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2023.2190013

Whitaker V, Curtis P, Fairbrother H, Oldham M, Holmes J (2023) Young people's explanations for the decline in youth drinking in England BMC Public Health DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14760-y

Whitaker V, Curtis P, Fairbrother H, Oldham M, Holmes J (2023) Young people's explanations for the decline in youth drinking in England BMC Public Health DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14760-y

Pennay A, Törrönen, Dich Herold M, Fenton L, MacLean S, Caluzzi G, Fairbrother H, Frank VA, Samuelsson E, Holmes J (2022) There's a lot of stereotypes going on": A cross-national qualitative analysis of the place of gender in declining youth drinking International Journal of Drug Policy DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2022.103827

Stevely A, Vashishtha R, Fairbrother H, Fenton L, Henney M, Livingston M, Holmes J (2022) Are changes in attitudes towards school associated with declining youth drinking? A multi-level analysis of 37 countries European Journal of Public Health DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckac029

Holmes J, Fairbrother H, Livingstone M, Meier P, Oldham M, Pennay A, Whitaker V (2022)  Youth drinking in decline: What are the implications for public health, public policy and public debate? Addiction DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2022.103606

Raninen J, Livingston M, Holmes J, Svensson J, Larm P (2021) Declining youth drinking – A matter of faith Drug & Alcohol Review DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.13411

Oldham M, Callinan S, Whitaker V, Fairbrother H, Curtis P, Meier P, Livingston M, Holmes J (2019) The decline in youth drinking in England – is everyone drinking less? A quantile regression analysis Addiction DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/add.14824

Kraus L, Room R, Livingston M, Pennay A, Holmes J, Törrönen J (2019) Long waves of consumption or a unique social generation? Exploring recent declines in youth drinking Addiction Research & Theory DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/16066359.2019.1629426

Oldham M, Holmes J, Whitaker V, Fairbrother H, Curtis P (2018) Youth Drinking in Decline Sheffield: ScHARR, University of Sheffield https://doi.org/10.15131/shef.data.7178333

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