Rich students drink more alcohol

Rich students drink more alcohol

28/02/2012

A new study by the University of Bielefeld shows that students from wealthy families more often resort to alcohol than children from socially disadvantaged families. The gender distribution is equally clear: twice as many boys and girls consume beer a week, Alcopops & Co.

Immigrant students consume less alcohol
Contrary to many prejudices, children from socially disadvantaged families drink less alcohol than rich students. This was the result of a study by Bielefeld University, which was commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO). Nationwide, 5860 boys and girls were interviewed at the fifth, seventh and ninth school year at 108 general education schools by Professor Petra Kolip and her team.

An interesting result was also provided by the evaluation of the drinking behavior according to the origin: Children of their parents, who both have a migration background, drink much less. „We explain this in such a way that most of them have a Muslim background. There are certain cultural rules“, explains the coordinator of the study. The survey found that 8.5 percent of boys aged 11 and 15 drink alcohol every week, while only half of boys with a mixed migration background experience it.

Girls drink less alcohol than boys
The girls of immigrant parents are similar. If drunk anyway, the choice would more often fall on champagne and wine. Here, however, the data base was lower, so that a statistical outlier would be quite possible, explain the scientists. For children from households with only one migrant parent, however, the distribution is the same as among German-born students. „This group stands a bit between the worlds“, suspects Kolip. The health scientist further explains that these students are more likely to follow the example of German children when it comes to alcohol.

The study found that boys consume alcohol twice as often as their female counterparts: while more than 11 percent of boys drink bottles at least once a week, only six percent are girls. „The most popular drinks are beer mixes and beer, followed by alcopops, while wine and sparkling wine are rarely consumed“, says the director of the WHO Collaborating Center at the University of Bielefeld.

Wealthy boys drink more
Boys from rich families drink more than their poorer classmates. „Interestingly enough, alcohol consumption is much more common in affluent families of boys, and drunk drinking is more common in these families“, explains the scientist. „Unlike the usual prejudice that places risky alcohol consumption in socially disadvantaged families, our data shows that risky consumption occurs in all social strata and is more pronounced in higher strata, at least in boys.“

Against alcohol abuse individual intervention programs
Based on the results of the study, the Bielerfeld scientists advise on individually oriented intervention programs in which, depending on the target group, a moderate handling of alcohol should be taught. Society and politics are also required. For example, advertising for alcoholic beverages should be made more difficult to restrict access to such products.

Already at the beginning of last year, the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden published alarming figures on alcohol abuse among young people. According to this, about 319 cases of acute alcohol poisoning are reported for 100,000 adolescents. The total number of cases of alcohol-related treatment increased by 2.6 percent. (Ag)

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Picture: Gerd Altmann