Young Adult Drinking Styles

This edited volume brings together cutting-edge research on drinking practices among young adults. This substantially revised and expanded second edition builds on the award-winning work of the first edition and adds new chapters on: young people’s drinking in low- and middle-income countries, the impact of the alcohol industry and the Covid-19 pandemic. A new section explores important shifts in drinking practices during and since the Covid-19 pandemic, including a focus on ‘lockdown drinking’ and the transition back (or not) to physical drinking spaces after the height of the pandemic.

In acknowledging the complex nature of drinking styles among young adults, the contributors to this collection eschew traditional understandings of young adult drinking that pathologise or generalise. We showcase a range of interdisciplinary and disciplinary perspectives and advocate for an inclusive approach, evident in the wide range of international settings, cultural perspectives, backgrounds and methods represented in this book, in order to better understand the economic, socio-cultural and pharmacological crossroads at which we now stand.

This book will appeal to researchers, practitioners and policy makers working in alcohol and substance use, public health and health psychology, as well as students and researchers across the social sciences.

Dom Conroy is Associate Lecturer in Psychology at The Open University, exploring young adult drinking practices, intimacy, social bonding, and flexible drinking styles.

Fiona Measham is Chair in Criminology at the University of Liverpool, UK. She has researched drug trends, policy, nightlife and harm reduction for three decades, and co-founded The Loop and The Loop AU, known for introducing drug checking in the UK and Australia.