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Purpose: Young people drinking to extreme drunkenness is a source of concern for policy makers and health promoters. There are a variety of community groups who appear to respond to the alcohol-related problems. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the working practices and relationships among local community groups as part of the pre-intervention context-assessment process. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on the narratives of nine community workers and ten venue managers the authors examine the community level approach to inform the choice of interventions to reduce risky drinking practices and community wide alcohol-related harm. Findings: There was considerable agreement across the community workers and venue managers about the nature of risk for young people in the night time economy (NTE). Two central themes of "perceived risk" and "management of risk" emerged from the data. Further, the community workers and venue managers identified different high-risk locations and strategies to improve their ability meet the needs of young people experiencing risk in the NTE. The local authorities, community organisations and night time operators adopted a broad proactive and connected approach to develop a coherent strategy to achieve new measures of safety in the NTE. Originality/value: Applying the social ecological model to provide a framework for the understanding of the social, environmental and political factors that influence alcohol use in young people.

Purpose: Young adult's drinking is about pleasure, a communal practice of socialising together in a friendship group. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the evolving support practices of drinking groups for better targeting of health communications messages. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative descriptive study examined the narratives of 28 young people's (age 18-24 years old) experience of a "night out" framed as the Alcohol Consumption Journey. Findings: The Alcohol Consumption Journey ritual consisted of three phases: preloading, going out and recovery. The participants described multiple forms of support practices located at each phase of the Alcohol Consumption Journey for maximising pleasure, minimising risk, encouraging supportive behaviours, enhancing group cohesion and protecting the drinkers from alcohol-related harm. Hence, support practices played a critical part in constituting and consolidating the drinking group. While the support practices appeared to be structured into the Alcohol Consumption Journey, they were activated differently for young men and young women. Support practices were an important driver in perpetuating the Alcohol Consumption Journey. Originality/value: The paper extends Vander Ven's concept of "drunk support" to better understand young adults' evolving support practices in the ritualised Alcohol Consumption Journey.

Purpose: The risk associated with heavy episodic drinking in young people has caused concern among public health professionals. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the gender differences in the perception of risk in alcohol consumption behaviour for better targeting of messages. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative descriptive study examines the narratives of 28 young people's experience of a "night out" framed as the Alcohol Consumption Journey to examine the ways young men and women experience context-specific risks for alcohol use. Findings: The young people perceived participation in the Alcohol Consumption Journey involved risk to their personal safety. Both young men and young women described their alcohol consumption as controlled and perceived the risks as external inevitabilities linked to the public drinking establishments. However, they displayed noticeable gender-based differences in the perception and management of risk in diverse contexts of the Alcohol Consumption Journey. Young women drink in close friendship groups and have a collective view of risk and constructed group strategies to minimise it. Comparatively, the young men's drinking group is more changeable and adopted a more individualistic approach to managing risk. Both groups exhibited prosocial tendencies to protect themselves and their friends when socialising together. Originality/value: The concept of "edgework" is effective in providing an explanatory framework for understanding young people's ritualised Alcohol Consumption Journey and to illustrate the context-specific risks associated with alcohol use.

Purpose: It is known that the consumption of fruits and vegetables in children is declining despite wide-spread national and international policy attempts to increase consumption. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experiences of children's consumption of fruits and vegetables so as to facilitate better health education targeting. Design/methodology/approach: In this qualitative descriptive exploratory study, peer group interviews were undertaken with 18 girls and 18 boys, aged 8-11, from schools in the Manawatu region of New Zealand. Findings: The results show that children's consumption of fruits and vegetables is dependent on balancing risk and reward. Children know and understand the importance of eating fruits and vegetables; however, the perceived risks are typically the prevailing determinant of consumption. These perceived risks often stem from children's uncertainty about whether the fruits and vegetables will meet the child's sensory preferences. To mitigate the risks perceived in eating fruits and vegetables, children employ a range of avoidance strategies. Originality/value: This study's results indicate that a model of "associated" risk is a valuable tool to explain children's fruit and vegetable consumption and preference behaviour and to assist in the development of future health education intervention campaigns.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent to which youth have ready access to alcohol and the extent to which immediate family influence affects consumption. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative descriptive exploratory study undertook semi-structured peer-group interviews with 20 participants from four New Zealand high schools. The interviews centred on exploring the "general" experiences of youth related to alcohol access--but with a focus on alcohol access "at home" and the parental role. Findings: The study confirmed that the home unit was the main source of alcohol for most youth and parents were the most common source of provision. Parents provided financial access to alcohol by giving their child money to purchase it themselves through older family members or friends. It was also found that youth used negotiation strategies with their parents to influence their consumer purchases of alcohol. Research limitations/implications: Youth frequently used strategies such as pressure tactics, exchange tactics, ingratiating tactics and consultation tactics to influence their family's decision-making process and to pressure their parents into supplying them with alcohol. Practical implications: It is important to recognise the role that family play as "gatekeepers" for readily allowing access and supplying youth with alcohol--and the reasons for doing so. Social implications: Alcohol plays an important part in many societies. It is important to understand how young people consume and access alcohol--particularly when the family plays a major role in access and consumption. Originality/value: Many studies have been conducted in relation to youth and alcohol consumption. Very few, as far as we can tell, explore the role of the family from the young consumers' perspective and especially from a qualitative narrative perspective.

Purpose: Heavy episodic drinking in young women has caused concern among many groups including public health professionals. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experiences of young women's alcohol consumption so as to facilitate better health education targeting. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative descriptive study examines the narratives of 16 young women's experience of a "night out" framed as the Alcohol Consumption Journey. Findings: The young women's Alcohol Consumption Journey is a ritual perpetuated by the "experienced" and "anticipated" pleasure from social bonding and collective intoxication. The data showed three sequential phases; preloading, going out and recovery, which were repeated regularly. The young women perceived that going out was riskier than preloading or recovery and employed protective strategies to minimise risk and maximise pleasure. Alcohol was consumed collectively to enhance the experience of pleasure and facilitate enjoyment in the atmosphere of the night time economy. Implications for health interventions on collective alcohol consumption and perceived risk are presented. Originality/value: The concept of socio-pleasure is valuable to explain the perpetuation of the young's women ritualised Alcohol Consumption Journey. The binary concepts of mundane/celebration, individual/collective and insiders/outsiders are useful to illustrate the balancing of collective intoxication with group protective strategies in navigating the edge between risk and pleasure.