NCJ Number
110570
Journal
School Safety Dated: (Winter 1988) Pages: 24-25
Date Published
1988
Length
2 pages
Annotation
School-based programs focusing on preventing adolescent alcohol use and abuse should be integrated into a communitywide prevention and treatment effort that includes raising the minimum legal drinking age to 21 years, restricting the availability of alcoholic beverages, enforcing drunk driving laws more strictly, and involving parents in the prevention.
Abstract
This effort should also include further examination of how alcohol advertising and the depiction of alcohol use in the mass media affects consumption, community awareness efforts that show how adolescent alcohol problems concern everyone in the community, and the development of realistic and broad-based alcohol education and prevention programs in the schools. Further components should include effective lines of communication between schools and parents and community agencies and the involvement of adolescents themselves in the planning and implementation of education, prevention, and treatment efforts. Contrary to popular opinion, recent Federal studies show that adolescent alcohol use has gradually declined for at least the past 5 years. Twenty-five percent of high school students report abstaining from alcohol use, but about 5 percent are daily alcohol users. Approximately 30 percent of students in 10th through 12th grade are problem drinkers. Educational programs in schools are at least mildly successful in changing knowledge and attitudes toward alcohol use. However, they are generally unsuccessful in changing consumption levels or alcohol-related problem behavior. Thus, broad-based efforts are needed. 4 references and description of Students Against Driving Drunk.