The rate of teen binge drinking decreased by 37 percent among eighth grade students in seven states that implemented a prevention system to reduce drug use and delinquent behavior.
These findings come from the Community Youth Development Study that compares teenagers living in 12 pairs of small to moderate-sized towns in Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
The study, which tracks the behavior of more than 4,400 students over five years, is a randomized trial of a prevention program system known as Communities That Care. The system was developed by J. David Hawkins and Richard Catalano of the University of Washington's Social Development Research Group. Hawkins and Catalano designed the system specifically to lower rates of delinquent behavior and drug use, and to promote healthy behaviors.
Hawkins commented on the most recent findings: "This study shows we can prevent adolescent risk behaviors community wide by using this system.
"The most dramatic finding concerned binge drinking. We asked youngsters if they had consumed five or more drinks of alcohol in one sitting in the past two weeks. We know kids who drink that way are at risk for developing alcohol abuse and dependence later. This binge drinking is occurring when children are 13 and 14 years of age, so we are actually preventing the likelihood of later alcohol problems. This is very important from a public health standpoint."
Researchers found that about 5.7 percent of eighth graders in communities that implemented the prevention system engaged in binge drinking within the last two weeks, compared with 9 percent of eighth graders in communities that did not use the system.
The study also found that youth in the communities using the Communities That Care system were significantly less likely to begin smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol or committing delinquent acts between the fifth and eighth grades.
(Source: www.eurekalert.org)
Labels: binge drinking, prevention program
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