Jackson Katherine, Finch Tracy, Kaner Eileen, McLaughlin Janice
Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University, The Baddiley-Clark Building, Richardson Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4AX, UK.
Department of Sociology, University of Newcastle, Claremont Bridge Building, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK.
BMC Womens Health. 2018 Sep 5;18(1):137. doi: 10.1186/s12905-018-0629-6.
In the last thirty years there has been a rise in harmful alcohol use amongst White British women. Approaches to alcohol harm reduction typically position drinking as an individual behaviour, with an emphasis on people to make changes to and by themselves. Moving away from an individual approach, this paper works with a relational framework to develop understanding of non-dependent women's drinking in the context of their everyday lives. It draws on Feminist Ethics of Care theory, to consider the importance of care in women's lives and alcohol as an element of their 'practices of care' in different relationships.
The study adopted an interpretive approach and drew on feminist principles of practice. Qualitative one-to-one face-to-face interviews were undertaken with twenty-six White women living in the North East of England. Participants were aged between 24 and 67 years. Thematic analysis of the data was carried out.
Participants' relationships came through the analysis as central to understanding the way alcohol did and not feature in care practices. In couple relationships drinking offered a way of doing 'care' together, yet when it was used too often it no longer became appropriate as a form of care. In non-family relationships alcohol enabled care giving and receiving, while disguising that care was being received. In relationships with mothers the use of alcohol was relatively absent in the care practices described. Participants' relationship to alcohol as a form of care of self, particularly when drinking alone, was closely related to their roles and responsibilities to others.
Overall the data suggests that interventions targeting women's drinking should start from a position that women are relational. Moreover that when care by others is lacking or unavailable, alcohol can increasingly be introduced into care practices, and the reproduction of these practices may be leading to an increase in heavy drinking. By seeing alcohol use in the context of wider familial and non-familial relationships, this work has important implications for future interventions.
在过去三十年里，英国白人女性中有害饮酒现象呈上升趋势。减少酒精危害的方法通常将饮酒定位为个人行为，强调人们自行做出改变。本文摒弃个体方法，运用关系框架来增进对非依赖型女性在日常生活中饮酒情况的理解。它借鉴女性主义关怀伦理理论，探讨关怀在女性生活中的重要性以及酒精作为她们在不同关系中“关怀实践”要素的情况。
本研究采用解释性方法并借鉴女性主义实践原则。对居住在英格兰东北部的26名白人女性进行了定性一对一面对面访谈。参与者年龄在24岁至67岁之间。对数据进行了主题分析。
通过分析发现，参与者的人际关系对于理解酒精在关怀实践中的作用方式至关重要。在伴侣关系中，饮酒提供了一种共同进行“关怀”的方式，但如果饮酒过于频繁，它就不再适合作为一种关怀形式。在非家庭关系中，酒精有助于给予和接受关怀，同时掩盖了正在接受关怀这一事实。在与母亲的关系中，在所描述的关怀实践中酒精的使用相对较少。参与者将酒精作为自我关怀形式的关系，尤其是独自饮酒时，与她们对他人的角色和责任密切相关。
总体而言，数据表明针对女性饮酒的干预措施应从女性具有关联性这一立场出发。此外，当他人的关怀缺失或无法获得时，酒精可能会越来越多地被引入关怀实践中，而这些实践的重复可能导致酗酒现象增加。通过在更广泛的家庭和非家庭关系背景下看待酒精使用，这项研究对未来的干预措施具有重要意义。
