Among Americans there is a commonly held perception that American young people drink more frequently and experience more alcohol-related problems than do their European counterparts. This perception, in turn, is often utilized as argument for various changes in U.S. alcohol policies and prevention initiatives, including elimination of minimum drinking age laws and development of programs that teach ‘responsible’ drinking to young people. Do European young people drink less and experience fewer problems than their American counterparts? Until recently data did not exist to easily answer this question, but new research demonstrates that this is not the case. In fact, in comparison with young people in the United States, * a greater percentage of young people from nearly all European countries report drinking in the past 30 days. * for a majority of these European countries, a greater percentage of young people report having five of more drinks in a row. * about half of the European countries have intoxication rates among young people that are higher than the intoxication rates in the United States, about a quarter had lower rates, and about a quarter had equivalent rates as the United States. Based on this analysis, the comparison of drinking rates and alcohol-related problems among young people in the United States and in European countries does not provide support for elimination of U.S. minimum drinking age laws or for the implementation programs to teach ‘responsible’ drinking to young people. (A)
Samenvatting