Analysis of the alcohol consumption phenomenon among adolescents: study carried out with adolescents in intermediate public education.

This study aimed to evaluate the alcohol consumption phenomenon in public schools in Coimbra, Portugal (7th, 8th and 9th grades) for the implementation of a preventive program of alcohol use/abuse. This is a quantitative, descriptive and correlational study. The sample included 654 students (51.5% female) between 12 and 18 years of age. The Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire--Adolescent form (AEQ-A) and the Questionnaire of Knowledge on Alcohol were used for data collection. Results show that positive expectancy on alcohol is discriminative of consumption and occurrence of intoxication. Positive expectancy exists even before adolescents have significant experiences with alcohol consumption and increases with age, which reinforces the need for early preventive effort. These results permitted to improve the prevention program included in the school curriculum of the 7th grade students.