What’s New

Youth Making a Difference in Underage Drinking Prevention

07/19/2010

There are far more youth not drinking alcohol than those who are. In 2008 96.6 percent of 12 to 13-year-olds did not use alcohol. In addition, nearly 87 percent of youth ages 14-15 and 74 percent of youth ages 16-17 did not use alcohol. These teens can become a powerful tool in a community’s underage drinking prevention efforts, long after the end of the Town Hall Meeting season. As role models, advocates, and activists, youth are in a unique position to help organizations reach other adolescents who are at risk, or who are already using alcohol.

Engaging youth in the national underage drinking prevention movement, along with other stakeholders, is one of the recommendations in The Surgeon General’s Call to Action To Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking (SGCTA) (PDF 1.41MB). That is one of the reasons why the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (SAMHSA/CSAP) THM initiative has encouraged youth involvement in the planning and execution of these events.

The results are notable: In 2010, 299 THMs on underage drinking registered with SAMHSA/CSAP were organized and led by underage youth themselves, in communities all over the United States.  Based on data from the most recent THM report from 2008 (PDF 1.36MB), 75 percent of all THMs featured at least one youth speaker; and the average THM drew 41 youth participants, nearly matching adult attendance.

Youth’s role in preventing underage drinking does not end at the close of the THM. Many adolescents remain active in preventing underage drinking among their peers year-round; many are enrolled in programs that reinforce their decision to avoid alcohol. They speak up and speak out about their positive choices and why they are making them. They are valuable role models and exert positive peer pressure to counteract the negative pressure from peers to drink alcohol.

It’s great news that youth are so willing to speak out. Peer-to-peer communication is a potent tool with this age group. Too many youth believe that drinking is acceptable and are drawn to it because of the nature of adolescence. Youth who do not drink themselves, choosing to wait until they are 21, serve as role models for others, and reinforce positive behaviors. They can have a powerful influence on younger children and on their peers.

Many adolescents are committed to important goals in their lives and make smart choices to give themselves the best chances of achieving those goals, like postponing alcohol use until they are of legal age. Some youth also witness the negative consequences that their friends and classmates experience when they drink, from risky sexual behavior to traffic accidents. So adolescents are motivated for many reasons to advocate for saying no to drinking.

One State youth group that advocates for underage drinking prevention partnered with SAMHSA/CSAP for the 2010 THMs. Friday Night Live (FNL) is a youth development program that engages young people in building skills, attitudes, knowledge, and experiences that prepare them for the present and the future. It also facilitates their efforts to become fully prepared, capable, competent people. The program receives significant support from the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs and includes FNL for high school-aged youth, Club Live (CL) for middle school-aged youth, and FNL Kids for youth in fourth through sixth grades. FNL has 315 active chapters across all 58 California counties. These chapters are predominately in high schools, but are also located in recreation centers, juvenile detention facilities, and alcohol/drug recovery centers. The majority of the over 104,000 participants are in high school chapters, making FNL one of the largest campus clubs in California.

Preventing underage drinking is a priority among FNL groups and many of them were quick to register as hosts of 2010 THMs. For instance, a newly-formed FNL club at Calistoga (CA) Junior-Senior High School set out to prevent alcohol use among fellow students. With just three members, the club helped plan and host a May 20, 2010, THM that drew many parents and local officials and garnered their praise and support. Club members recruited friends to help gather printed materials and information sheets about the consequences of teen alcohol use. They showed videos that told stories of young people who were killed as a result of underage drinkers getting behind the wheel of a car. They attached purple ribbons to grocery bags bearing the FNL logo, and they provided participants with fortune cookies containing underage drinking prevention messages, in English and in Spanish. In Napa County, where an estimated 50 percent of 11th graders recently reported that getting alcohol is “very easy,”¹ getting the attention of grown-ups is a critical step in implementing evidence-based prevention strategies, such as the new social host ordinance Calistoga community members learned of at the May 20 event.

FNL’s advocacy in prevention of substance abuse does not begin or end with the THM season. Since its inception in 1984, FNL has offered youth alcohol- and drug-free alternative social and recreation activities, mentoring programs, and other resources to support their decisions to avoid alcohol and other drugs. Individual FNL groups tackle local underage drinking issues; their youthful members volunteer their afterschool time to deliver effective underage drinking prevention messages to their peers and to community grown-ups, particularly parents. In the process, they gain knowledge and skills that equip them to assume effective roles as community members and leaders in adult life.

Other groups across the Nation have taken a variety of promising approaches in their THMs to involve youth and empower their leadership to do more for underage drinking prevention. Teens at one school in Portland, OR, began meeting in December 2009. They collected data from fellow students, researched local alcohol and drug issues, and shared the information they gathered at the local THM. Armed with that data—and with plans to collect more—the coalition of groups that hosted the THM are working with the teens to develop a youth-led media campaign to create policies that maintain a healthy and safe environment.

Nine teenage girls got started in prevention work by painting posters to hang in the hallways of Fallbrook (CA) High School to advertise a THM, sponsored by the San Diego Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), on March 24, 2010. The girls, ages 14-17, also asked students to sign pledges not to drink during spring break. They had done their homework and wanted to provide information to students because too few of their fellow students were aware that drinking poses different and greater risks to teenagers than adults. The group of girls continues to brainstorm anti-underage drinking campaigns with the help of adults from a local nonprofit prevention program.

A New Jersey THM, cosponsored by Bridgetown Youth to Youth and the Bridgeton Municipal Alliance, focused on the positive aspects of not drinking with the premiere of a video that featured local teens from the South Jersey area. Parents were encouraged to attend, as sponsors noted many adults think of underage drinking as a rite of passage and do not recognize its inherent dangers. Youth hosted discussions during the THM, along with representatives from the alcohol education, prevention, and treatments fields.

Students planted themselves in the audience at the Lower Makefield, Yardley, Falls, Tullytown (LYFT) Coalition’s THM in Bucks County, PA. The youths stood up at various points during the meeting to tell their story or recite hard-hitting statistics about underage drinking in front of an audience of teens, law enforcement agents, business leaders, and members of faith communities. The ongoing relationship between the community and its youth has furthered prevention efforts and identification of key behaviors that put youth at risk. The LYFT Teen Advisory board, made up of middle and high school students, hands out literature, hosts fund-raising events for LYFT, and holds regular meetings, even during the summer.

Youth need structured activities during the summer months, when they have extra time on their hands due to the long vacation from school. So this is the perfect time for leaders of community-based organizations to reach out to get or keep youth involved, in underage drinking prevention. They can be active leaders and resources in the community. Some communities have an “undercover buyer” program that uses a young person to help conduct compliance checks. As the name implies, the teen works with the alcohol control board, goes into a store or establishment, then attempts to buy alcohol. This work can be very rewarding for the teen and is one way for teens can help reduce underage drinking.

If your community has a mentoring program, older youth can be enlisted to work with younger adolescents. According to the SGCTA, increasing volunteer opportunities offers youth “a way to experience self-fulfillment and achieve a sense of meaning and purpose.” In turn, those feelings help build and reinforce protective factors, the first line of defense in the in the ongoing effort to keep our youth healthy, safe, and free of alcohol and other harmful substances.