Attitudes of Israeli Jewish and Arab high school students toward alcohol control measures

This article describes a study carried out in the winter of 1997 in order to determine the attitudes of 2,186 adolescents of four religions in the north of Israel toward eight alcohol control measures: Taxation on alcohol, age limit for buying alcohol, restrictions on types of outlets which are allowed to sell alcohol to minors, restrictions on opening hours of pubs, restrictions on advertising of alcohol, limit of blood level of alcohol when driving, the authority of policemen concerning the testing of drunk drivers, and restrictions on roadside alcohol outlets. Findings indicate that the majority of the respondents tend to enhance alcohol control measures pertaining to alcohol and driving issues, but only about a third of the participants tend to enhance alcohol control measures in the other domains. In addition, Arabs tend to favor restrictive attitudes toward alcohol control measures in comparison with Jews, and Arab females tend to favor such attitudes more than Arab males. Implications for prevention and effective alcohol policy are discussed.