Abstract
This paper presents the findings from a controlled prospective study of the effectiveness of a school-based alcohol education package for 13 year olds. The research had three phases: (1) baseline survey of alcohol-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviour; (2) development and teaching of a short alcohol education package and (3) follow-up survey. The outcomes of this research reinforces some recent studies wich suggest the way forward may lie in an educational approach which takes account of social influences on substance use and misuse.