The proposed study is a continuation of a study conducted in 1982 to determine what influence certain sociocultural factors had on a student's knowledge, attitudes, and behavior regarding alcohol use. The 1982 study revealed that parental drinking patterns had the most influence on a child's drinking pattern. The study also determined that a student's knowledge about alcohol and his/her attitudes regarding the use of alcohol have little relationship with his drinking behavior. Continuation of this study, using the same group of students and their cohorts four years later and also examining present-day sixth and eighth grade students, will determine if drinking patterns have changed over the past four years and if the factors affecting those patterns have altered over time. The study will also seek to determine if specific sociocultural factors can predict which students are at a high risk for excessive alcohol use. Students participating in the study will be sixth, eighth, tenth, and twelfth grade students from six school districts in Georgia and South Carolina that participated in the 1982 study. A four-page questionnaire used in the preliminary project will be administered to 3,600 students to determine their knowledge, attitudes, and behavior regarding alcohol use. Multivariate analysis of variance and discriminant analysis will be performed on the data. If parental drinking behavior is found to be the most powerful influence on an adolescent's drinking pattern and if this effect is not mediated through attitudes or knowledge regarding alcohol use, then our present alcohol education programs need to be modified. The results of this study may be used to formulate intervention programs emphasizing the use of parental role models.
| Forney, M A; Forney, P D; Ripley, W K (1989) Predictor variables of adolescent drinking. Adv Alcohol Subst Abuse 8:97-117 |
| Forney, P D; Forney, M A; Ripley, W K (1988) Alcohol and adolescents. Knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. J Adolesc Health Care 9:194-202 |
| Forney, P D; Forney, M A; Ripley, W K (1988) Profile of an adolescent problem drinker. J Fam Pract 27:65-70 |
