Teenage drinking shocks students from overseas

Cartoon / Rod Emmerson

Foreign students coming to New Zealand say they are shocked at the teenage drinking culture, but studies suggest many double their intake of booze while here.

A report by the University of Washington, Seattle, found their college students who came here were likely to increase their drinking to sometimes double their usual intake.

A local study by Auckland University of Technology showed that foreign students were often amazed by how central alcohol was to social gatherings.

The study, Learning Intercultural Competence, had 14 foreign students in Auckland and seven New Zealand students studying abroad keeping a daily journal of their social interaction experiences.

Researcher Leo Hitchcock said: "What shocked them the most was the fact that alcohol was being given to them at parties by parents, and even teachers."

One participant involved in the study said she got scared when she went to a party for the first time in New Zealand where "everyone was drunk" and "holding alcohol".

Jackie, a student from Finland, said: "The main difference is that alcohol is an important part of parties in Finland, but drugs are hardly seen. It's really different here in New Zealand, where using weed is so common."

A New Zealand student living in South Africa meanwhile told the study that drinking culture there was very different.

"The focus is very different. In New Zealand, I was always saddened at the 'let's just sit around, get drunk and talk, and be stupid, attitude'," he said.

Mr Hitchcock said that while students were shocked at first, most learned to adapt and came to a point where they accepted that "this is the way things are" in New Zealand.

In the US study, published in Psychology of Addictive Behaviours, 177 students answered a questionnaire before they went away and when they returned.

Most said they doubled their drinking while abroad in countries such as New Zealand, but returned to an average of three to five drinks a week when they went back to Seattle.