An evaluation of two school-based alcohol education programs.

Abstract

An alcohol education program was given to 1353 students (779 girls) in elementary school grades 7 and 8 and another similar one to 684 students (482 girls) in secondary school grades 9 and 10. Testing 1 wk before the program and 1 wk after revealed the immediate effects of such a program as analyzed by both univariate and multivariate methods. In both elementary and secondary school students, knowledge about alcohol was better in experimental groups than in controls and was better in girls than in boys; boy drinkers in experimental groups had more favorable attitudes about alcohol than their controls and volume of alcohol consumption in the week before posttesting was lower in abstainers in the experimental groups than in their controls. In the elementary-school students only, boy abstainers had less favorable attitudes about alcohol than their controls, more boys in the experimental groups changed from use to nonuse of alcohol in the week before posttesting than did their controls and there were no significant effects in expectation of alcohol use in the following 12 mo. In the secondary schools only, fewer grade 9 students in the experimental groups changed from nonuse to use of alcohol in the week before posttesting and the experimental groups expected to use less alcohol in the following 12 mo. than the control groups.