Among Americans there is a commonly held perception young people in European countries are introduced to alcohol in a cultural context that reduces heavy and harmful drinking. The idea is often expressed that because the drinking age in the United States is 21, much higher than in European countries, young people miss out on the opportunity to learn to drink within family settings where moderate drinking is the norm. They believe, therefore, that American young people drink more frequently, binge drink more, and experience more alcohol-related problems than do European youth. This perception, in turn, is used as argument for changes in U.S. alcohol policies and prevention initiatives, including lowering the minimum drinking age and development of programs that teach responsible drinking to young people. Do European youth actually drink less and experience fewer problems than their American counterparts? 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; A majority of the European countries have higher intoxication rates among young people than do youth from the United States; and For a majority of these European countries, a greater percentage of young people report having been intoxicated before the age of 13. 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 lowering the U.S. minimum drinking age or for the implementation of programs to teach responsible drinking to young people. Do young people from Europe drink more responsibly than young people from the United States?This question is important because it is often raised in the context of the stricter minimum drinking age laws in the United States. Although the implementation of the uniform minimum drinking age of 21 and the more recent enactment of zero tolerance laws have reduced drinking by young people and saved thousands of lives (e.g., Cook, 2007; Shults et al., 2001; Wagenaar, & Toomey, 2002,), these policies have come under attack as contributing to irresponsible styles of drinking. Sometimes, European countries are held up as examples of where more liberal drinking age laws and attitudes, in turn, may foster more responsible styles of drinking by young people. It is asserted that alcohol is more integrated into European, and especially southern European, culture and that young people there learn to drink at younger ages within the context of the family (Room, 2004). Supporters of this argument frequently claim that the higher legal drinking age in the US makes alcohol an attractive “forbidden fruit” and forces young people to drink in risky and unsupervised situations (Frantz, 2004). As a result some believe that young Europeans learn to drink more responsibly than do young people from the United States. This report addresses this question using data from the 2007 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) and the 2007 United States Monitoring the Future Survey (MTF). (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting