A cross-cultural pilot study on alcohol education and young people

Alcohol use has become normative for adolescents in most developed and developing countries, with serious health implications. In response to this problem, the World Health Organization convened a group of investigators in 1985 from centres in four countries--Australia, Chile, Norway and Swaziland--to participate in a pilot study on the efficacy of the social influences approach in school-based alcohol education. The goal of the educational programme was to delay onset and minimize involvement of alcohol use among 13-14 year-old adolescents. 25 schools in the 4 countries, representing middle- and lower-class populations, were randomly assigned to peer-led education, teacher-led education or a control condition. The programme focused on the social and environmental influences to drink alcohol, and skills to resist those influences. It consisted of 5 lessons over 2 months. Baseline and post-test data measured alcohol-use knowledge, attitudes, skills and friends' drinking patterns. Data were collected immediately prior to and 2 months following the educational programme. The data converge on the finding that peer-led education appears to be efficacious in reducing alcohol use across a variety of settings and cultures.