Field Assessment of Social Learning Approach to Teaching Adolescents about Alcohol and Driving

摘要

The report discusses the development and test of a comprehensive intervention program for teaching adolescents about alcohol and its effect on driving. It examines such influences on adolescent drinking as parents and peers, environmental factors, psychological variables, and adolescents' attitudes toward drinking, and elaborates on the consequences of adolescent problem drinking. The effectiveness of alcohol educational programs are discussed and rationales presented for the use of a proven educational technique entitled 'Teams-Games-Tournaments' (TGT). The technique is based on the use of peers as teachers and reinforcers of appropriate behavior. The components of an alcohol educational program utilizing this technique are elucidated. Data suggest that the TGT intervention was successful in teaching adolescents about alcohol, a subject which is espoused to be of great importance but struggled with in terms of its presentation.