Why Young People Reject the Word Abstinence When It Comes to Alcohol

In a cultural moment when Gen Z is drinking less than any generation before it, a new Swiss study has uncovered an unexpected linguistic fault line: young people who do not drink alcohol do not want to be called abstainers. The word, they say, belongs to priests, to recovering adults, and to a world of stigma they refuse to inhabit. The research, published in the journal Advances in Drug and Alcohol Research, suggests that the terminology long used in scientific literature and prevention campaigns may be quietly undermining the very young people it aims to support.

The study, led by researchers examining the experiences and opinions of adolescents and young adults who do not consume alcohol in Switzerland, is part of a broader qualitative investigation into alcohol non-consumption among youth. Rather than relying on surveys or statistical modeling, the team turned to focus groups, a method designed to surface the nuances of language, identity, and social perception that quantitative approaches often miss. The result is a rare, detailed portrait of how young people themselves interpret the vocabulary that researchers, clinicians, and educators have long applied to them.

Between 14 and 20 years of age, 63 participants took part in twelve focus groups, with 36 females and 27 males. The researchers deliberately structured the groups along three axes: gender, age, and drinking status. Age categories were based on Swiss alcohol laws, which distinguish between different levels of access to alcohol depending on age, while drinking status separated non-drinkers from drinkers. This design allowed the team to compare how the same terminology landed across different social and legal contexts, and crucially, to hear from both those who do not drink and those who do, ensuring that the perceptions of non-drinkers were not examined in isolation from the broader peer culture in which they are embedded.

Each focus group lasted roughly an hour and was recorded and transcribed for analysis. The discussions were anonymized, with any identifying details removed before transcription was finalized. The researchers then applied thematic content analysis, a qualitative technique that involves systematically reading through transcripts to identify, code, and categorize recurring themes. This method is particularly well suited to questions of language and perception because it preserves the participants’ own words and reasoning, allowing patterns to emerge from the data rather than being imposed by predefined hypotheses. The central question put to participants was deceptively simple: what do you think of when you hear the term abstinence in the context of alcohol?

The answer, across nearly every group, was that the term felt wrong. Participants consistently judged abstinence, abstainer, and abstention to be unsuitable descriptors for young people who do not drink, regardless of whether the person being asked was a drinker or a non-drinker. This consensus across drinking status is one of the most striking findings of the study, because it indicates that the rejection of the term is not merely a defensive reaction from those being labeled. Even young people who drink alcohol recognized that the vocabulary used for non-drinkers carried connotations that were out of step with how their peers actually experience the choice not to drink.

So what did the word actually evoke? The connotations participants reported were overwhelmingly negative and, perhaps most surprisingly, rarely connected to alcohol at all. For many, abstinence immediately suggested religion. One 16-year-old female participant explained that the word made her think of priests who abstain, of abstaining from all sins, and that it did not necessarily make her think immediately of alcohol. Others connected the term to people who refrain from drinking to honor their religious beliefs, reinforcing the sense that abstinence belongs to a moral and spiritual register rather than a health-related one. A second major connotation was sexual, with participants associating the term with abstinence from sexual activity, a usage common in educational and religious contexts. The third and most consequential association was with adults who have stopped drinking because of alcohol-related problems, positioning abstinence as a term for recovery rather than for the ordinary, everyday choice of a teenager who simply does not drink.

Beyond these specific associations, participants identified a deeper structural problem with the term: it normalizes alcohol consumption by making non-drinkers appear as the deviant group. Because no special term exists for people who drink alcohol, the existence of a label like abstainer implicitly frames drinking as the default and not drinking as the exception requiring explanation. One 19-year-old female non-drinker argued that it should not be those who do not drink alcohol who are called abstainers, but rather those who drink who should be called consumers, adding that the term somehow labels people who do not drink. This insight, articulated by a teenager, mirrors a long-standing critique in sociolinguistics: that naming practices reveal which behaviors a culture treats as normative and which it treats as requiring justification. In a context where alcohol consumption is widespread among adults and increasingly common among older adolescents, the term abstainer effectively marks non-drinking as an act of deviance rather than a legitimate personal choice.

The study also revealed interesting variation across age groups. Younger participants, aged 14 to 16, often struggled to connect the term to alcohol at all, reflecting the fact that abstinence is not part of their everyday vocabulary in this context. Older participants, particularly those aged 18 to 20, were more likely to have encountered the term in health education or literature, and some could articulate a more nuanced position. A 20-year-old male non-drinker acknowledged that the term works in a limited sense, because there is a sort of not giving in to temptation, capturing the self-restraint dimension that the word carries. Yet even this participant, who could see the logic behind the term, ultimately recognized that it imposed a framework of temptation and resistance that did not match his own experience of not drinking. For most non-drinkers in the study, the choice not to consume alcohol was not experienced as a constant battle against desire but as a simple preference, and the vocabulary of temptation and resistance felt alien to that experience.

This disconnect between the lived experience of non-drinking and the language used to describe it has practical implications for prevention and education. The researchers argue that continuing to use abstinence in scientific literature and prevention campaigns to describe young people who do not drink may be actively harmful, because it reinforces the marginalization of a group that already feels out of the norm. Participants themselves offered alternatives: terms such as non-drinking, non-drinkers, or alcohol non-consumption were preferred, particularly because they describe the behavior without imposing a moral or medical framework. These terms, participants suggested, would better integrate non-drinking youths into prevention initiatives and positively highlight their choices rather than framing them as acts of self-denial. The distinction may seem subtle, but it reflects a broader principle in public health communication: that the language used to describe a behavior shapes how individuals understand their own choices and how peers perceive those choices.

The researchers are careful to note that the term abstinence is not inherently problematic in all contexts. For adults who have stopped drinking due to alcohol-related issues, the term remains appropriate and widely understood within clinical and recovery communities. The problem, they argue, is specifically the application of recovery-oriented vocabulary to young people for whom not drinking is not a recovery but a preference. This distinction matters because the growing number of adolescents and young adults who choose not to drink alcohol represents a significant public health trend, one that prevention initiatives should support rather than stigmatize. By adopting terminology that reflects the actual experiences of young people, researchers and educators can create initiatives that resonate with their audiences rather than alienating them.

The study’s findings arrive at a moment when alcohol non-consumption among youth is rising across many high-income countries, driven by a combination of health consciousness, changing social norms, and the growing visibility of alcohol-free lifestyles. In Switzerland, as elsewhere, the cultural context remains one in which alcohol consumption is deeply embedded in social life, making the choice not to drink a socially salient act that requires navigation. The language used to describe that choice, the study suggests, is not a trivial matter of semantics but a factor that shapes identity, peer perception, and engagement with prevention. As the researchers conclude, moving away from abstinence toward terms that young people themselves prefer is a small change with potentially large consequences for how the next generation understands and discusses the choice not to drink.

Subject of Research: Perceptions of the term “abstinence” among adolescents and young adults: a qualitative study on alcohol non-consumption in Switzerland

Article Title: Perceptions of the term “abstinence” among adolescents and young adults: a qualitative study on alcohol non-consumption in Switzerland

Article References: Fernandes Palhares, D., Chok, L., Suris, J.-C., & Barrense-Dias, Y. (2025). Perceptions of the term “abstinence” among adolescents and young adults: a qualitative study on alcohol non-consumption in Switzerland. Advances in Drug and Alcohol Research, 5, Article 13969. https://doi.org/10.3389/adar.2025.13969

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/adar.2025.13969

Keywords: Perceptions, term, abstinence, adolescents, young, adults, qualitative, alcohol, non-consumption, Switzerland, scientific research