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Alcohol First Use and Attitudes Among Young Children

Journal of Child and Family Studies volume 6, pages 359–372 (1997)Cite this article

Abstract

We describe the attitudes and first use of alcohol by children, grades 3-6, who participated in the Bogalusa Heart Study, 1993-94. Questionnaire data reflected that more than one-third of the children had experimented with alcohol at the time of the study. The dominant environmental factor in experimentation was family modeling, and the dominant personal factor was curiosity, regardless of race, gender, or grade. Most children believed that alcohol use can lead to accidents, that drinking has negative social consequences, and that alcohol use hurts only if done to excess. Indications are that young children generally have negative attitudes regarding alcohol use, and that public and family alcohol education efforts need to be more specific about deleterious effects of even low levels of alcohol use in the young.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Health Sciences, Tulane School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine, Tulane Center for Cardiovascular Health, New Orleans, LA

    Carolyn C. Johnson

  2. Department of Community Health Sciences, Tulane School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine, Tulane Center for Cardiovascular Health, New Orleans, LA

    Kurt J. Greenland

  3. Department of Biostatistics & Epidemiology, Tulane School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine, Tulane Center for Cardiovascular Health, New Orleans, LA

    Larry S. Webber

  4. Health, Department of Community Health Sciences, Tulane School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine, Tulane Center for Cardiovascular, New Orleans, LA

    Gerald S. Berenson

Authors
  1. Carolyn C. Johnson
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  2. Kurt J. Greenland
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  3. Larry S. Webber
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  4. Gerald S. Berenson
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Johnson, C.C., Greenland, K.J., Webber, L.S. et al. Alcohol First Use and Attitudes Among Young Children. Journal of Child and Family Studies 6, 359–372 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025056320441

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025056320441

  • children
  • alcohol
  • attitudes
  • first use