[Effectiveness of institutional policies to prevent adolescent alcohol use: The view of experts and adolescents].

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study is to obtain the views of a sample of adolescents and experts on adolescence, family, school, local policies and media, regarding the effectiveness of institutional policies to prevent adolescent alcohol use.

SETTING

Four educational centers in the province of Seville. Head office of the Alcohol and Society Foundation in Madrid.

DESIGN

Qualitative study using the method proposed by Grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967).

METHODOLOGY

Data were collected from 10 discussion groups guided by semistructured interviews. The data were analyzed using Atlas ti 5 software.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 32 national experts and 40 adolescents of both sexes aged 15 to 20 years living in the province of Seville, selected by theoretical intentional sampling.

RESULTS

The experts believed that most of the evaluated preventive actions were effective, while adolescents disputed the preventive impact of most of them. Adolescents proposed actions focused on the reduction of supply of alcohol. Experts proposed a mixed model as the most effective strategy to prevent alcohol consumption in adolescents, combining supply and demand reduction policies, depending on specific short and long term objectives.

CONCLUSIONS

We have obtained, not only an overview of what is working (or not) from the view of adolescents and experts, but also the key points that should be taken into account for designing effective prevention policies.