Male friendships and drinking: an explorative study in one low-income, semi-rural, Western Cape community.

[摘要] ENGLISH SUMMARY: Problem drinking is a particularly pertinent issue amongst Coloured men in farmworker communities and is associated with adverse effects such as trauma, violence, various crimes, and unsafe sexual practices. This study was motivated by a number of studies conducted in a specific low-income semi-rural, Coloured community in the Cape Winelands district of the Western Cape which found that men's problematic drinking mostly occurred in the company of male friends. The main aim of this study was therefore to focus on this context and to explore midlife men's constructions of their male friendships and drinking. The study was situated in a feminist social constructionist theoretical framework. Thirteen midlife men participated in the study. A total of 12 individual interviews and eight focus group interviews were conducted and produced approximately 19 hours of interview material. Data collection, transcription and analysis took place simultaneously. Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis method was used to analyse the interviews. The analysis produced three overarching themes: (i) structuring and lubricating social lives with alcohol; (ii) drinking in the company of male friends has a therapeutic effect; and (iii) respectable drinking. These three themes present several important implications for alcohol policy and future interventions in South Africa which include: the need to move beyond the view of alcohol as a 'dangerous instrument of intoxication' in order to recognize the facilitative role of alcohol in friendship fun and pleasure as well as its therapeutic potential. Secondly, the importance of being cognisant of the distress and lack of healthy coping skills that may underlie problematic drinking practices, especially amongst men. Finally, notions of respectability, and specifically respectable drinking, are important in this community and should be incorporated into interventions which aim to combat problem drinking in the community of study.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University