How Adolescents and Parents See Their Moral Responsibilities With Regard to Adolescents Using Alcohol-A Deductive Secondary Analysis.

BACKGROUND: This study described how adolescents and the parents saw their moral responsibilities with regard to adolescents using alcohol. METHODS: This was a deductive secondary analysis, based on Hart's taxonomy of moral responsibility. The primary studies were based on 19 group interviews with 87 adolescents aged 14-16 and 17 interviews with 20 parents. Voluntary participants were recruited by purposive sampling from two public schools in Finland. RESULTS: Role responsibilities comprised of adolescents taking care of themselves and parents providing authority figures and helping adolescents to make rational decisions about alcohol. Capacity responsibilities referred to adolescents' abilities to make independent decisions on using alcohol and their developing abilities to control their actions. Parents required abilities to get involved in and show an interest in their children's everyday lives. Causal responsibilities focused on ensuring that adolescents did not cause harm when they used alcohol, and parents had to acknowledge and react to the consequences. Liability responsibilities were about the law on alcohol use and responsibilities for any legal consequences. The role schools could play was important. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents and parents had wide-ranging responsibilities related to the adolescents' using alcohol and school nurses could play an important role in healthy decisions.

Adolescents' Perceptions and Experiences of Their Responsibilities for Their Alcohol Use-A Group Interview Study.

Young people often experiment with alcohol during adolescence, which is a period of their life that is characterized by increasing responsibility. Knowing how adolescents perceive responsibilities with regard to their alcohol use could prevent their alcohol consumption and help them to take responsibility for this aspect of their lives. This study describes adolescents' perceptions and experiences of their responsibilities for alcohol use. We used a qualitative descriptive method that focused on 87 adolescents aged 14-16 years, from two schools. They took part in semi-structured interviews in 19 groups in Finland in 2017. The data were analyzed using inductive content analysis. The adolescents described alcohol as harmful, but tempting, and said that they were developing a sense of responsibility for their alcohol use. They were responsible for their own wellbeing, behaving responsibly if they drank and intervening in peers' alcohol use. They talked about how their parents had unquestionable responsibilities to care about whether adolescents drank alcohol. Their parents' responsibilities related to the guidance they gave, how strict they were and how they responded to adolescents using alcohol. Anonymous and intense support from authorities encouraged adolescents to learn to take responsibility. Identifying and focusing on their responsibilities could help adolescents to develop into healthy individuals and increase their awareness of the need to avoid alcohol. Parents may also need support to meet their responsibilities.