Which alcohol control strategies do young people think are most effective?

Abstract

Background: Alcohol control strategies (e.g., increasing the price of alcohol, raising the legal drinking age) have been proposed in an attempt to reduce young people’s hazardous alcohol consumption. However, little research has measured young people’s perceptions of the effectiveness of such strategies. The present study collected data from young people in several European countries to answer this question. Method: N = 1704 (Female = 1219; Male = 481) participants, recruited from five European countries, reported their perceptions regarding the effectiveness of 11 alcohol control strategies via an online survey. Results: Repeated Measures ANOVA was used to compare perceptions of strategies. Statistically significant differences in perceived effectiveness of the strategies were found F(10,1694) = 236.408, p <.001, η2 = .583). “Alcohol treatment and relapse prevention†received the highest rating of effectiveness (M = 5.45; SD = 1.51), while “Raise the legal drinking age†was received the lowest rating of effectiveness (M=3.12; SD=1.98). Discussion: Study results show that young people rate strategies that do not directly affect them as the most effective, and rate strategies that could affect them as less effective.