Drinking patterns of young people in Northern Ireland.

RECENT surveys of drinking habits in both Great Britain (Stacey and Davies, 1970; Ritson, 1975; Kinder, 1977) and Ireland (Fitzpatrick, 1972; Irish Council of Churches, 1974) have indicated that, whereas the majority of teenagers drink in moderation and responsibly, the minority who drink heavily experience problems and are a major cause of concern. The work of Blaney and McKenzie (1979) on adults in Northern Ireland has recently drawn further attention to the problem of excessive use of alcohol. MATERIAL REVIEWED The findings reported in this paper arise from a general investigation of the association between the knowledge and the stated behaviour over a wide range of health matters of -fifth-formers in Northern Ireland conducted in 1976-77 (McGuffin, 1979). A coded-answer knowledge test, which included four items on alcohol, and a behaviour questionnaire, which included a section on the use of alcohol, were administered to a sample of 2439 fifth-formers (average age 15.95 years). These were the fifth-formers in a random sample, drawn from the rolls of all the grammar and secondary schools in the province prepared to take part in the inquiry, who were present on the day the papers were administered. Of the 247 schools invited, 167 (67.6 per cent) participated and of the drawn sample of 3150, 711 (22.6 per cent) were absent. Although every effort was made to obtain a sample statistically representative of the fifth formers in the province, this proved impossible for two reasons. A number of principals declined to participate, most because of lack of time or administrative difficulties and some because they objected to certain aspects of the questions. In particular, the questions on use of alcohol were unacceptable to a few principals who take a definite anti-drink approach and considered it was not appropriate to ask such questions of their pupils. Other principals considered that the questions on the drinking habits of parents and siblings would unduly invade family privacy. Absence on the day the papers were administered accounted for 22.6 per cent of the drawn sample not participating. In some cases, this was due to illness or travel difficulties but there was evidence that, especially in secondary schools, some of the absentees were regular truants. The major consequence of these factors is that the data obtained from the analyses cannot be extra-polated to give statistically reliable figures for 16 year olds generally in the province. Nevertheless, several important trends and patterns are indicated.