Constructing maturity through alcohol experience–Focus group interviews with teenagers

Danish 14- and 15-year-olds are at the top of the European list when it comes to drinking and drunkenness. The aim of this article is to demonstrate how the struggle for social recognition–with alcohol as the central marker–transpires in groups of teenagers in Denmark. This article shows how alcohol experience and positive attitudes towards drinking are related to popularity and influence in the peer group. The function of alcohol in teenagers’ struggle for recognition is so strong that the participants who drink very little or not at all are put under considerable pressure. With alcohol as a central marker of maturity–and the drinking teenagers’ parents described as supporters of this view–non-drinking teenagers come out as the potential losers in the negotiation of status in the groups. The data are drawn from a large qualitative study in which 28 focus group interviews were conducted with Danish teenagers. This article represents a close reading of two of the interviews. Theoretically, the analysis is inspired by symbolic interactionism, Erwin Goffman's dramaturgical approach to social interaction and the post-structuralist reasoning of Judith Butler.