What About the Drinking Age?
Additional Information
Underage Alcohol Abuse Prevention:
Facts & Information
by David J. Hanson, Ph.D.
An overview of underage drinking issues is found in Underage Drinking. Although 66% of American college undergraduates are age 21 or older, the subject of college and university student drinking is included in this overview and in the other resources presented below.
Legal Issues
Responses to Arguments Against the Minimum Legal Drinking Age
Underage Kids or Military Heroes?
Rethinking Alcohol Use by the Emerging Adult
A Learner's Permit for Drinking
The Legal Drinking Age: Science vs. Ideology
"We Would All be Better off if the Drinking Age were 18"
Former College President Calls for Lower Drinking Age
Underage Drinking: What MADD Doesn't Want You to Know
The Drinking Age Should be Lowered
Get Rid of the Minimum Drinking Age
Parenting
Children, Alcohol and Parenting
Reducing Alcohol-Related Problems: What We can Learn from Others
Drinking with Parents is "Protective" of Alcohol Abuse
Teach Safe Drinking to Your College Bound Teen
It's Better to Teach Safe Use of Alcohol
Underage Drinking: What NOT to Do
Get Real about Teenage Drinking
Educator Advocates harm Reduction as Effective
Reducing Alcohol Abuse
For general overviews visit Alcohol Abuse and Reducing Alcohol Abuse among Students. The social norms marketing technique has repeatedly proven effective in reducing the use and abuse of alcohol among young people. It's based on the fact that the vast majority of youths greatly exaggerate in their minds the quantity and frequency of drinking among their peers. Therefore, they tend to drink -- or drink more -- than they would otherwise, in an effort to "fit in."
When credible surveys demonstrate the actual, much lower drinking rates, and the results are widely publicized or "marketed" to this group, the imagined social pressure drops and so does youthful drinking. Study after study demonstrates that the technique works. What's more, social norms programs cost very little to implement.
A Proven Way to Reduce Alcohol Abuse
In this interview, Dr. Wesley Perkins explains the social norms marketing approach.The Social Norms Marketing Approach
Dr. H. Wesley Perkins, has edited The Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Substance Abuse: A Handbook for Educators, Counselors, and Clinicians, the contents of which are described.Social Norms Marketing Handbook
Reports the publication of a comprehensive handbook for implementing the social norms marketing approach.Social Norms Marketing is Highly Effective
The largest nationwide study of college students to date shows that social norms marketing is effective.Social Norms Marketing Reduces High School Drinking
Social norms marketing is an effective method of reducing tobacco use and alcohol consumption among high school students.Collegiate Alcohol Abuse Reduced
The entire University of California system uses the social norms marketing approach to reduce alcohol use and abuse effectively.Social Norms Effectiveness
Presents an example of the effectiveness of a social norms campaign.Social Norms Marketing: Some Criticisms
Examines some of the opposition to social norms marketing.
Another technique that has repeatedly proven effective in reducing alcohol use and abuse is known as Brief Intervention, typically as part of Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS).
Brief Intervention Techniques
Brief Intervention Techniques, as well as why they are effective, are explained by program evaluation expert, Dr. Jason Kilmer.Brief Intervention can Reduce College Alcohol Abuse
Brief interventions can be effective in cutting alcohol use by college students, and the methods used to deliver these interventions -- including e-mail and the Internet may hold promise for other populations, researchers say.Brief Intervention for Drinking Problems in Medical Settings
Brief intervention, which can be conducted in general health care settings, can help patients reduce risky drinking practices according to the federal National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).
Harm reduction is effective in reducing negative consequences of alcohol abuse.
Survey Research and Statistics
Campus drinking: What's Really Going On
Alcohol Abuse "Guesstimates" Aren't Statistics
Alcohol Abuse Statistics: A Report
Public Health Leaders on Underage Drinking
Binge Drinking & Problem Inflation
College Drinking and Junk Science
Dry Fog - Zero Tolerance and the "Underage Drinking Epidemic"
Alcohol Research and Statistics: Deceptive Reports
Early Onset of Drinking: What Research Says & What Anti-Alcohol Activists Say It Says
Alcohol Advertising and Underage Drinking
For a general overview visit Alcohol Advertising. Also visit these pages:
Youth and Alcohol Ads: Are Youth Overexposed?
Explosion of Alcohol Ads on Cable Television
TV ADS for Ber, Wine, and Distilled Spirits
Liquor and Beer Ads Are Not the Problem
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