Survey Slated to Target Teen Alcohol Use

An alarming nationwide study released this week shows teenagers believe downing five or more alcoholic drinks every day is no big deal.

The study released Wednesday by The Partnership at Drugfree.org shows that 45 percent of teens surveyed nationwide saw no great risk in consuming that much alcohol on a daily basis.

And of the 2,544 teens nationwide who responded to anonymous questionnaires from March to June 2010, nearly 70 percent of them have tried alcohol. The average age most teens said they had their first drink was 14, with nearly a quarter of those teens saying they first consumed alcohol as young as age 12, the study showed.

Those staggering statistics have raised more than a few eyebrows, and is something that the and have decided to team up on in an effort to prevent underage drinking here.

The school board recently granted unanimous approval to Hamden Youth Services to conduct an anonymous survey of teenagers in grades 7-12 from both and .

The survey, according to Christopher Brown, Hamden Public Schools’ coordinator of student support services, will be administered to approximately 400 middle school students and 970 high school students later this Spring. Students’ identities will be anonymous, and there will be no way to track those who participate, according to Brown.

The primary goal is to identify potentially risky behaviors of town youths when it comes to substance abuse, as well as see what types of positive aspects teens are exposed to at home, school and in the community, that influence their behavior.

“We hope that by allowing students at Hamden Middle School and Hamden High School to complete the survey the town of Hamden will have clear information about the positive assets within the community that support healthy development of our young people, while also identifying whether there are behaviors prevalent among our youth that will require action from the community to reduce risky behaviors,” Brown said.

The survey is geared to gather information about teen alcohol use, and, in part, will ask teens at what age they first tried alcohol.

However, Brown said “a majority of the survey will also examine the presence of positive aspects in the family, school, and community of students that support healthy development and reduces the chances of using alcohol during the teenage years.”

Brown said the survey, developed by a company called Search Institute, is part of an overall grant that Hamden received in partnering with The Youth Development and Training Resource Center of New Haven, along with Hamden Youth Services’ Drug, Alcohol and Tobacco Prevention Committee.

A requirement of the grant was to collect data from youth in the community.

The Hamden PTA Council also endorsed the survey.

Search Institute is slated to tally the surveys, and will, in turn, provide the town with a comprehensive report which will include a thorough analysis of the results this summer, Brown added.

Once the results are in, officials said any risky behaviors identified can be targeted for intervention by the appropriate town departments. Any necessary action plans to combat underage drinking would then be developed by a collaborative effort from community agencies, parents, youth, town departments and school officials.