The largest federal initiative focused on underage drinking was launched by the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in 1998. $75 million has been appropriated to support this effort, now known as the Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws Program. Each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia has received funding under this program to support state and local efforts to enforce laws related to alcohol use by underage persons and to prevent underage drinking. The national evaluation of the program seeks to (1) determine what state and local programmatic activities are being supported by the program, and (2) evaluate the impact of the program in a sample of communities. This paper describes the design of the evaluation and presents an overview of baseline data from the four major data components: (1) a telephone survey of four key actors in the state initiative in all 50 states (N=192), (2) in-depth case studies of program implementation in 6 states, (3) a telephone survey of police chiefs and sheriffs in 110 communities (55 intervention and 55 matched controls) in states receiving discretionary grants (N=161), and (4) population surveys of youth, age 16 to 20, in these same 110 communities (n=1,894). Implications of the baseline data for the future trajectory of the program are discussed.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to: 1. Describe the Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws program. 2. Describe the National Evaluation of the program. 3. Apply this knowledge to the identification of opportunities to participate in the program in her or his state
Keywords: Adolescents, Alcohol Use
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: The National Evaluation of the Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws Program is supported by Grants 98-AH-F8-0101 and 98-AH-F8-0101 (S-1) from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice.