Illegal Leisure Revisited : Changing Patterns of Alcohol and Drug Use in Adolescents and Young Adults

This book updates the progress into adulthood of 14-year-olds that were tracked for the first edition, using qualitative interviews and self-report surveys. The new edition shows them moving into the world of work, relationships and parenthood.

This book updates the progress into adulthood of the cohort of fourteen year olds who were recruited and tracked until they were eighteen years old. Illegal Leisure (1998) described their adolescent journeys and lifestyles, focusing on their early regular drinking and extensive `recreational'' drug use.

This new edition revisits these original chapters, providing commentaries around them to discuss current implications of the original publication, documenting and discussing the group at twenty-two and twenty-seven years of age. Illegal Leisure Revisited positions the journeys of these twenty-somethings against the ever-changing backdrop of a consumption-oriented leisure society, the rapid expansion of the British night-time economy and the place of substance use in contemporary social worlds. It outlines the ways in which these young people have moved into the world of work, long-term relationships and parenthood, and the resulting changes in their drinking and drug-use patterns. Amid dire public health warnings about their favourite intoxicants, and with the growing criminalisation of an array of recreational drugs, the book revisits these young people as they continue as archetypal citizens in a risk society.

The book is ideal reading for researchers and students from a variety of fields, such as developmental and social psychology, sociology, criminology, cultural and health studies. Professionals working in criminal justice, health promotion, drugs education, harm reduction and treatment will also find it an invaluable resource.