CAN SCHOOL ALCOHOL EDUCATION-PROGRAMS CONTRIBUTE TO DECLINES IN DRINKING AMONG STUDENTS

In Ontario, declines in alcohol use and related measures such as heavy drinking and drinking-driving among students have occurred since 1979 . Although the reasons for these declines remain unclear, over the sam e period the numbers of students exposed to alcohol education in schoo ls has increased substantially. In an effort to estimate what proporti on of the declines in alcohol-related behaviours among students might be due to the increase in alcohol education, we used an effect size es timate of 0.17 derived from meta-analytic studies to calculate the num ber of students beneficially influenced by the increase in alcohol edu cation. The results suggested that the proportion of the declines acco unted for by the increase in alcohol education was modest, but was lar ger for the more serious indicators of alcohol problems.