The intervention model for application in Kiel will focus on home drinking and especially pre-drinking in young people.
The needs assessment carried out in Kiel included a survey of high school and university students (N=313) as well as interviews with partners from the census bureau, the local organization for drug prevention and the hospital of the city of Kiel. The survey and the interviews revealed that pre-drinking is widespread, already relevant in minor high school students and often includes binge drinking. Supermarkets are the main supply source even for adolescents younger than the legal age to purchase alcohol, pre-drinking is usually home drinking and pre-drinkers rarely experience refusal of admittance to nightlife locations even if they are already intoxicated. In average, minors with alcohol intoxication in hospital/emergency rooms have not reached legal drinking age yet.
The model designed for the intervention will focus on strategies oriented to influence availability of alcohol and to foster parents in dealing adequately with the topic of alcohol youth in their teenage offspring.
An intervention is being developed together with the City of Kiel (department of child and youth protection). As key agents, representatives of retail and nightlife will be invited to develop and agree on common strategies to reduce home drinking (e.g. increased awareness for and implementation of existing legislation by staff training, commitment for regulation of alcohol purchase to minors and adults in excess of legislation, gratification of this engagement by a seal). Furthermore, a parent intervention will be developed and implemented in schools (training of parents to sensitize them for pre-drinking, to communicate with their children and to establish common rules for alcohol use in their family, delivered in the framework of parent-teacher conferences). A pilot implementation of the intervention will start in summer 2017.
For information at national level of the intervention being developed, please contact Reiner Hanewinkel – hanewinkel@ift-nord.de or visit our websites.
