Curbing Teen Drinking Difficult in Urban Areas

The same underage prevention program that works effectively in rural areas are not necessarily going to be effective in urban areas. In fact, researchers find that keeping middle school students from alcohol and drugs is a much tougher task in the inner city, even when the best prevention programs are utilized.

University of Florida researchers found that a three-year, three-pronged prevention program that worked very well in rural Minnesota did little to keep Chicago middle school students from drinking or using in drugs. In Minnesota, the program reduced alcohol use 20 to 30 percent.

More Intensive Efforts Needed

"The intervention found to be effective in rural areas was not effective here, which really surprised us," Kelli A. Komro, the study's lead author, said in a news release. "This is an important finding to realize this program was not enough. The bottom line is this: Low-income children in urban areas need more, long-term intensive efforts."

The researchers found that community leaders in the low-income, urban areas were more concerned about other problems, like housing needs and gang violence, to put much effort into underage drinking efforts. The researchers had to often explain whey these leaders should be concerned about teen alcohol use.

To Many Bigger Problems

"People in these areas are concerned with housing, they're concerned with gangs and other drug use," Komro said. "There was a whole upfront effort where we had to educate people about how alcohol was related to those other issues, and that it was an important issue to think about with their young people.

"We know from other studies in low-income, urban neighborhoods, there is a higher concentration of alcohol outlets, compared to suburban or rural areas. There were a lot of alcohol ads around these schools and a greater density of pro-alcohol messages these children are exposed to. You mix that with the poverty level and it's just a high-risk environment."

The study was published in the March 2008 online edition of the journal Addiction.

Related Information:

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• Kids Most Influenced by Siblings' Drinking, Smoking
  
• Youth Drinking Spells Later Alcohol Problems

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