Alcohol and the youth: a bottom-up approach to develop educational measures

Abstract

A major challenge for governments as well as schools and health professionals is developing educational measures to decrease the amount of alcohol consumptions among youth. This article reports the findings of a qualitative study examining young people’s beliefs and behaviours according to the use of alcohol the participants’ social context and their opinion on alcohol prevention. Fourteen people between 15 and 17 years old were interviewed using a semi-structured interview list. The findings suggest that responsibility is the main topic in this study. Students feel responsible for their own behaviour and also parents give the massage to drink responsible. Whatever this concept means depends highly on the social backgrounds and beliefs of the participants. When the participants talk about the educational measures and prevention programmes they have followed, they mention a gap between these programmes and their own experiences.