Stephen L. Brown, PhD¹, David A. Birch, PhD, CHES¹, Viajaya Kancherla, BHMS¹, Madeleine Boyer², and David Midland³. (1) Department of Health Education and Recreation, Southern Illinois University, Mailcode 4632, Carbondale, IL 62901-4632, 618-453-1863, slbrown@siu.edu, (2) Business Development and Marketing, KidsHealth--The Nemours Foundation, 1600 Rockland Road, Wilmington, DE 19308, (3) National Association of Health Education Centers, 1533 N RiverCenter Drive, Milwaukee, WI 53212-3913

Despite minimum age laws, one-fifth of 8th graders report drinking alcohol within the last month; this increases to nearly one-half by 12th grade. One-third of these teens report having their first drink before age 13. In addition to increasing risk for later abuse and dependence, early drinking is associated with traffic accidents, and various risky behaviors. Certain psychological, personality, and familial factors for early drinking have been identified. Understanding the norms, personal motivations, and prevention recommendations for underage drinking common among younger children is also crucial. Our goal was to obtain information that will enable educators, caregivers, healthcare professionals, and others to develop more-effective programs to prevent underage drinking. Data were obtained from approximately 1000 children at twelve health education centers in seven states. Classes, grades 4-8, visiting centers during the study period, were eligible to participate. Trained center staff read each question and answer choice as they simultaneously appeared on a large screen. Participants indicated their choices by pressing corresponding letters on handheld, electronic keypads. All respondents remained anonymous. Questions were developed by a project advisory team consisting of center staff, school administrators and teachers, a child psychologist, a pediatrician, university researchers, parents, and health educators. The survey was revised after pilot testing with two classes at a one center. School-level data (i.e., school size, ethnic/racial proportion, free/reduced lunch participation) for public schools participating were obtained from the NCES. Based on past studies, total demographics for this study are expected to mirror national averages.

Learning Objectives: