The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #68867

Missy C Fleming, PhD, Medicine and Public Health, American Medical Association, 515 North State Street, Chicago, IL 60610, 312 464 5315, Missy_Fleming@ama-assn.org and Richard Alan Yoast, PhD, Office of Alcohol, American Medical Association, 515 N. State St, Chicago, IL 60610.

Alcohol use and abuse continue to be major concerns in the adolescent community and among their parents. While there are many shared concerns between these groups, there are sharp differences in perceptions of risk, levels of problems and possible solutions. As part of a research project on brief office physician interventions with adolescent moderate drinkers, attitudes towards the appropriateness of physician interventions and the problems these could address were explored. Parental and youth perspectives were solicited through computer assisted telephone focus groups using a national, multicultural sample. Adolescent women and men and parents participated in separate groups to discuss drinking patterns, perception of problems and consequences and potential interventions. A total of six groups were conducted (two same-sex, two mixed sex and two parent). Results include youth agreement on the role of alcohol in recreational activities, the pervasiveness of underage drinking and concerns about drinking and driving. Parents share these concerns, however tend to greatly underestimate levels of use and risk and overestimate the degree to which they do or could control this. While all groups agreed on the appropriateness of the idea of physician brief office interventions, the concept of early or brief intervention was something they did not understand. The concept of treatable alcohol problems below the level of alcoholism was a new concept. Parental attitudes were found to be congruent with findings of several recent national surveys about parental concerns about underage drinking and alcohol policy solutions.

Learning Objectives:

• To describe adolescent perspecitves on their own drinking behaviors
• To review parental attitudes towards adolescent alcohol use
• To analyze both adolescent and parent reactions to a brief office intervention for adolescent moderate alcohol use

Keywords: Alcohol Problems, Adolescent Health

Related Web page: www.ama-assn.org/go/adolescenthealth

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.