Analysis of an Ethnographic Study on “Pre-Gaming” Among University Students

Abstract

Pre-gaming is an activity performed by young people before a social event. Other studies and the media paint this activity as harmful because they focus on the damage excessive drinking may bring. Understood as a social fact (Durkheim, 2001), pre-gaming should be studied more thoroughly.

The aim of this study was to verify if pre-gaming is a social fact, or simply an activity to consume alcohol excessively as suggested by other studies. In this regard was proposed to analyse pre-gaming activities documented by med-school freshmen as well as to investigate if excessive drinking truly is the core, or if other meanings and purposes are relevant. Recognize previously overlooked categories or differences.

Recordings of 100 med-school freshmen on pre-gaming were requested as an assignment for the Anthropological Medicine class. These were analyzed and reflected into a qualitative, cross-sectional descriptive study. The students were asked to perform participant observation and open interviews.

When evaluating the results, the field notes were critically analyzed by second order ethnography. Then key concepts and categories were identified, which allowed tto develop a matrix where categories adopted operational definitions in discourse. It was proven that alcohol is indeed a common mediator in all these events. However, many other youth-inherent categories appeared, such as: gender, class, belonging, games, illegal substances consumption, and peer relationships.

We interpret that pre-gaming is a “social fact”, in Durkheim’s terms: “Any way of acting, whether fixed or not, capable of exerting over the individual an external constraint [...]” (Durkheim, 2001 p51). Alcohol is a common mediator, but not core to the activity as other studies claim. There are several other important distinctions that come into play, for example: Gender and diverse corporealities, Socio-economic classes and all that brings, illegal substances, feeling of belonging and social inclusion. These are often overlooked and overshadowed by the health concern of alcohol consumption.