Perceptions of normal alcohol use held by Zimbabwean high school students

Perceptions of the normal or no-problem use of alcohol held by male and female high school students were investigated. A sample of 127 male and 113 female high school students were asked to indicate their perceptions of the normal use of alcohol for their own sex and the opposite sex using a structured questionnaire. The students were also asked to select from a list of reasons those reasons they considered were non-problem reasons for using alcohol. Male and female students set levels of normal alcohol use for males that were significantly higher than those set for females. Over half the male sample and a large proportion of the female students selected inappropriate reasons for using alcohol. Appropriate health education programmes based on these findings are discussed; in particular the need to educate adolescents to recognize and deal with their inappropriate reasons for using alcohol.