www.alkoholpolitik.ch

Drinking motives have a prominent role in cognitive models of adolescent and adult alcohol decision-making … The complementary construct of motivation not to drink has received less attention. …
We examined how abstinence motives interacted with drinking motives and alcohol expectancies to predict alcohol consumption in samples of US high school students (N > 2,500).
Nondrinking motives predicted lower rates of lifetime and current alcohol use. Motives not to drink interacted with specific drinking motives, like social and coping motives, and alcohol expectancies to predict certain aspects of drinking behavior. For example, motives not to drink had the greatest impact on youth with weaker social motivations.
Findings highlight the distinction between motives not to drink and other alcohol-related cognitions in predicting adolescent alcohol consumption.
This work not only supports the utility of this construct in developing models of youth alcohol-related decision-making but also has implications for prevention programming. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 06/04/11)

This statistical report acts as a reference point for health issues relating to alcohol use and misuse, providing information obtained from a number of sources in a user-friendly format. It covers topics such as drinking habits and behaviours among adults (aged 16 and over) and school children (aged 11 to 15), drinking-related ill health and mortality, affordability of alcohol and alcohol-related costs. The report contains previously published information and also includes additional new analyses. The new analyses are mainly obtained from The NHS Information Centre’s Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) system and Prescribing data. The report also include up to date information on the latest alcohol related government policies and targets and contains links to further sources of useful information. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 5/27/11) NHS Information Center, 2011

Lunch Seminar, Hosted by MEPs Anna Hedh (S&D) and Marian Harkin (ALDE), European Parliament (Brussels)- A3E-2Tuesday 21 June 2011 12h00 – 14h30
Alcohol is one of the most heavily marketed products on our shelves.
Young people are an important target audience for the alcohol industry and they are exposed to unprecedented levels of sophisticated marketing, from mass media advertising to sponsorship of events, product placement, internet, merchandise, social networks etc.
Alcohol marketing has a powerful impact on young people’s drinking behavior and undercut the efforts by public health authorities to reduce harmful drinking among youth.
The speakers will analyze the scientific evidence on the cumulative impact of alcohol marketing and will present the results of two recent European projects on how to better regulate the content and volume of marketing in order to protect young people.
Please click here to register (People who DO NOT have a pass to the European Parliament need to register before 14 June 2011).
If you need any further information please contact Eurocare’s office at ruth.ruiz(at)eurocare.org or 02 736 39 76.

Many governments realize the need for effective legislation to reduce the harm from alcohol use. This is also recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) Global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. But how to do it? WHO Western Pacific Regional Office has offered a guide.
The purpose of the legislation guide is to assist government agencies and ministries in developing country-level legislation to implement, monitor and enforce effective alcohol policies.
The guide provides advice on approaches to alcohol regulation to support development of effective legislation appropriate to each country. It provides practical advice based on international experience about the implications of legislative options, steps to be taken to implement legislation and best practice on how to enforce legislation and support compliance. …
Order or download the guide from the WHO WPRO web site: Addressing the harmful use of alcohol – a guide to developing effective alcohol regulation (Source: add-resources.org, 5/19/11)

Binge drinking appears to hamper young adults’ ability to perform simple language and memory tests, a new study shows. The research suggests that drinking large quantities of alcohol in a short period may have an effect on the region of the brain involved in learning.
CNN reports that the study involved 122 college students between the ages of 18 and 20, about half of whom said they were binge drinkers. The other half drank alcohol moderately. All of the students performed learning and memory tests. First, they read lists of words and tried to remember as many as they could. Then they heard two stories and tried to retell them as accurately as they could. … (Source: Join Together, 5/17/11)

School prevention programs aimed at curbing alcohol misuse in children are somewhat helpful, enough so to deserve consideration for widespread use, according to a large, international systematic review.
The most significant program effects were reductions in episodes of drunkenness and binge drinking, reviewers found.
„School-based prevention programs that take a social skills-oriented approach or that focus on classroom behavior management can work to reduce alcohol problems in young people,“ said David Foxcroft, lead review author. „However, there is good evidence that these sorts of approaches are not always effective.“ … (Source: Medical News Today, 5/11/11)

Fourteen colleges and universities announced this week they have banded together to fight binge drinking. The institutions, including Dartmouth, Cornell, Duke, Boston University, Northwestern, Princeton and Stanford, plan to test and measure new strategies and share their results with other colleges.
The initiative, called the Learning Collaborative on High-Risk Drinking, will begin meeting this summer. Dartmouth President, Jim Yong Kim, says he hopes at least 20 colleges will be a part of the collaborative by then, The Washington Post reports. (Source: Join Together, 5/4/11)

Prom and graduation should be a time of pure joy for high school seniors and the people who love them. But every year, this season can also be a time of sadness for too many families. That’s because along with these important milestones come many opportunities for underage drinking and driving.
Each year, communities across the country mourn the deaths of teenagers involved in a car crash that resulted from underage drinking at a prom or graduation party. A survey of more than 2,500 high school juniors and seniors conducted in 2010 found that 90 percent believed their peers are more likely to drink and drive on prom night and 79 percent believe the same is true of graduation night. However, only 29 percent of teens say that driving on prom night is very dangerous; 25 percent believe the same is true for graduation night. … (Source: Join Together, 5/3/11)

Allowing adolescents to drink alcohol under adult supervision does not appear to teach responsible drinking as teens get older. In fact, such a „harm-minimization“ approach may actually lead to more drinking and alcohol-related consequences, according to a new study in the May 2011 issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
„Kids need parents to be parents and not drinking buddies,“ according to the study’s lead researcher, Barbara J. McMorris, Ph.D., of the School of Nursing at the University of Minnesota. Allowing adolescents to drink with adults present but not when unsupervised may send mixed signals. „Adults need to be clear about what messages they are sending.“ … (Source: Medical News Today, 04/28/11) Comment: The second study in this article shows the same result. Probably prevention in schools by offering alcohol to the students will have the same effect.

The Interacting Role of Alcohol Availability at Home and Parental Rules
Objective: The fi rst aim of this study was to gain more insight into the bi-directionality between alcohol-specific parental factors (i.e., parents’ alcohol use, alcohol availability at home, parental rule setting, and frequency and quality of communication about alcohol) and adolescents’ alcohol intake and alcohol-related problems. The second aim was to examine the relative impact of alcohol-specific parental factors on adolescents’ alcohol intake and related problems by studying them in a comprehensive model. … Conclusions: The findings emphasize that parent interventions aiming at the prevention of adolescents’ alcohol use should include the advice to restrict the perceived presence of alcohol beverages at home. Moreover, to prevent alcohol problems, parents should be advised to enforce strict rules about drinking, particularly when a total absence of alcohol at home is not feasible. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 72,
408–417, 2011) (Source: Alcohol Reports, 04/27/11) jsad.com, May 2011