Cheers! Drink to everyone's health : attitudes of young people towards alcohol consumption.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to research alcohol consumption patterns in young people and their attitudes towards alcohol drinking. The results are· intended to help create "positive" messages promoting low risk drinking. Three research tools were used in this study, a questionnaire, a focus group and interviews. This methodology was based on the concept of triangulation. The questionnaire was completed by 347 University of Malta students, aged 18 to 22 years. The focus group was carried out with young people also within this age group. The interviews consisted of face-to-face interviews with 3 bartenders. The results showed that the participants of this study tended to consume alcohol frequently. Beer and spirits were the commonest alcoholic beverages. The rate of alcohol consumption, binge drinking, drunkenness and the perceived level of drunkenness were found to increase with age. Drink driving also appeared to be quite a common practice. Sixty nine point eight percent of the respondents thought that there was a drinking problem among young people in Malta. This study indicated that alcohol drinking and related problems might constitute a public health problem among university students. In developing preventive interventions, the drinking patterns and the social-psychological perspective of this practice should be taken into consideration.