Risk factors and characteristics of alcohol-drinking habits among high school students

The aim of this research was to examine the occurrence and characteristics of alcohol abuse among adolescents and to determine which factors could bes t explain students' drinking habits and the maladjusted behaviour due to al cohol abuse. The research was conducted on a representative sample (N=4841) of first-grade high-school students in Croatia. An extensive questionnaire was used examining the frequency and modes of alcohol abuse as well as the examinees' characteristics of behaviour and experience. The results demons trate that alcohol abuse among high-school students is a frequent practice. Almost 80% of the examined students have drunk at least once in their live s, and almost half of them state they have had alcoholic drinks in the last 30 days. Furthermore, there is a considerable number of those who have in the intervals mentioned been under a strong influence of alcohol. The data generally indicate that students start drinking alcoholic beverages already in elementary school and that by the beginning of high school their drinki ng habits become very pronounced indeed. In order to clarify students' drin king habits, the correlations of alcohol-drinking frequency variables have been calculated, intoxication in life and problems of behaviour due to alco hol abuse (criterion variables) with sociodemographic variables (gender, sc hool-type, socio-educational status of parents), students' school success, absence from classes and estimates of the occurrence of alcohol abuse and i ntoxication among the students' friends. The results were processed by grad ed regression analyses. As the most important predictors of the criteria of alcohol abuse, intoxication and problems of behaviour due to alcohol abuse , in both samples of male and female students, a more positive (yielding) a ttitude towards alcohol is expressed, as well as poorer results in school, truancy and association with peers who drink extensively The research resul ts indicate that the more frequent and intensive use of alcohol is by and l arge a social activity to be associated with unacceptable behaviour and poo rer school results.