Drinks Initiatives

CONTRIBUTOR

• Fundación Alcohol y Sociedad

PARTNER(S)

• University of Barcelona
• Fundación Bosch i Guimpera
• Municipalities in Catalonia, Madrid and Andalusia
• Instituto Deusto de Drogodependencias

OBJECTIVE

• To delay the onset of alcohol consumption and reduce the number of underage drinkers.
• To reduce the quantity of alcohol consumed by underage drinkers.
• To raise awareness of the effects of underage drinking.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INITIATIVE

• Local level intervention programme carried out by specially trained monitors and held in secondary schools. The programme consists of guides for students, teachers and families as well as workshops for parents and students.
  • The teacher's guide covers topics such as: the programme and their role in it; adolescents and the effectof alcohol on their body and 21 exercises divided according to age group covering health, peer and social pressure.
  • The student's guide covers topics such as: the circulation of alcohol in the body; long and short term effects of alcohol on the body; reasons why adolescents should not drink alcohol, myths and facts about alcohol and the law against drink-driving.
    • Student workshops are tailored by age group and run by fully trained professionals. All the issues covered in the guide are discussed.
  • The parent's guide covers topics such as: Adolescents: when and why do they begin to drink? Why, what, how much and in which way do they drink?, How to talk to your children about alcohol, Family and adolescence, Brief notes about alcohol and Questions.
    • The aim is to offer them the necessary tools for them to be able to approach everyday situations related to bringing up their children along with thorough information on alcohol and teenage years, thereby easing communication in families.
    • Parents may also attend the "Charla y Escuela para padres y madres" (Chat and school for parents) conference to discuss the issues raised in the guide.

• Partly funded through EFRD's 2009 Budget line programme.

IMPACT

• 190,774 students from 1,243 schools were reached during the 2008-2009 academic year.
  • 1,341,336 students from more than 2,600 schools have been reached since 2001.
• 278 conferences were held for parents in the 2008-2009 academic year.
  • Since 2003 there has been 1,236 workshops.

• In some Autonomous Communities such as Andalucía, Catalonia and Madrid approximately 40% of pupils and secondary educational centres have participated in the program.

EVALUATION

• The quality of the conferences, the Guides and the knowledge and skills of the monitors is rated at 4.5 points out of a maximum of 5 by schools.
• The Guides for Families and in the Guides for Teachers are rated at 4 out of a maximum of 5 points by teachers and parents.
• The Guide for Pupils is rated at 3.91 out of a maximum 5 points and the talk given by the monitor is rated at 7.59 out of 10 by pupils.

• Every year the results of a representative sample of young people between the ages of 12 and 18 from the Autonomous Communities of Andalucía, Catalonia and Madrid are assessed by means of a pre-test and a post-test.
• Within this sample, 50% are pupils who have taken part in the program and the other 50% is made up of youngsters who have not taken part in the program. Both groups, (experimental and control) are totally comparable as far as main variables are concerned (age, sex and habitat).
  • Pre-test: Approximately 25% of pupils say that their alcoholic consumption and that of young people in general, will decrease thanks to the Pupils Guide and / or the talk.
  • Post-test:
    • Pupils who have taken part in the program feel better informed about alcohol and the dangers that result from its consumption and abuse than those who have not taken part.
    • 66% of those who have participated in the program consider that there is enough information available about the effects of alcohol and its abuses as compaired to 59% of those who have not participated in the program.
    • Pupils who have participated in the program are less in agreement with the sentence "alcohol affects girls in the same way as it affects boys".
    • The perception of the risk that the consumption and the abuse of alcohol represent is greater among pupils who have participated in the program compared to the control group.
    • 19% of the participating group claimed to have stopped drinking as a result of having learnt of the consequences of abusive drinking during the programme compaired to 14% of the non-participating group.
    • Among those adolescents who consume alcohol, the participating group claim to drink in a lesser degree with a view to "getting drunk" or  "to disconnect" than those who have not participated (9% vs. 14%, and 21% vs. 29% respectively).