Lessons on alcohol sought

Press, 30 December 1978, Page 6

Lessons on alcohol sought

NZPA Staff Correspondent London Lessons in alcohol and acceptable drinking habits should be included in New Zealand school studies, according to an Auckland psychologist. A counter-educational programme, aimed at “stripping away some of the myths and giamour that surround drinking in our society,’’ would nullify the effects of alcohol advertising. Mr Rob-! ert Brown, of the University of Auckland’s Department of Psychology has written in the British Journal On Alcohol And Alcoholism. Mr Brown is a medical: research fellow in alcohol at the university. He said successive New Zealand governments have maintained a laissez-faire attitude on liquor reform that has found favour with profit-oriented commercial interests.

This has contributed in part, he said, to the devel--I opment of peculiar New , Zealand drinking habits and ■ customs described “by one . leading authority as pathoI logical.” Mr Brown wrote that there would be two methods : to reduce the effectiveness 1 of alcohol advertising which I he said increases con- ' sumption. The first would be a gov-ernment-imposed ban on the advertising of alcohol, or the ’ restriction of it so children would not be exposed to it. “Such proposed restrictive legislation is unlikely to. I gain governmental support, as the futility of attempting . to produce legislative change . or reform relating to the New i Zealand liquor industry has i been well documented,” he I said. i The second method would i be a campaign directed at

i the public “but perhaps • more profitably at younger ’ people as part of their over-, 1 all education and ’social- ■ isation’ process.” He said schoolchildren, could be exposed to an t “educational package” con- ; sisting of a series of video t-' ; ape presentations dealing i with various aspects of appropriate and inappropriate drinking behaviours. “These modelled behaviours' ■ would form the basis for, ■ educational discussion i : groups. Further, ‘skill’ training in dealing responsibly < ’ with situations related to i drinking — for example, . how to refuse a drink or : how to cope with social i > pressure to drink — could then be practised.” ; The “packages,” he said,.' i could be made available to high schools, technical col-; i leges and youth organisat tions.

“It is hoped that this programme might successfully; : counteract some of the per-' vasive and persuasive pressures to consume alcohol that already exist in our: society, without involving; participants in actual con- [ sumption of alcohol. - “In doing so it may to! some extent compensate for| parents who neglect their re-[ sponsibility to educate their! 'offspring in the skill of re-! sponsible drinking,” Mr v Brown said. i c He wrote that in a survey t Of 3116 Auckland high ? school students, it was 5 found that 85 per cent had V tried alcohol and 79 per cent; reported they still drink. ( Forty-one per cent saidT they drink at least once a ’ week. I Ninety-three per cent J began drinking before they ' 'were 15. [1