Results The results of our questionnaire about drinking among young people are presented below. The closed type questions are presented with graphs.

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1 The research We used survey as a working method. We questioned 85 students from Gimnazija Vič from different classes. They were aged between 15 and 18. The research was conducted in March The research was conducted to see what is the situation in our school, to find out how educated are students about the alcohol and their opinion on drinking among young people. The questionnaire was anonymous. Before doing it we set up some hypotheses. 1. Almost every student has had a glass (e.g. can of beer, glass of wine ) of alcoholic drink. 2. Most common reason for drinking is to have fun or to fit in. 3. Most common places to drink are nightclubs and parks 4. At least 50% of drinkers have suffered from more than one of consequences of drinking for example headache after drinking, intoxication, vomiting etc. 5. Parents don t allow drinking, or they are restricting usage of it. 6. Students will over evaluate the percentage of their friends that drank alcohol in past month.

2 Results The results of our questionnaire about drinking among young people are presented below. The closed type questions are presented with graphs. Gender Male Female 52% 48% Graph 1 Gender In our sample there are approximately 50% of males and females. Age % 32% 36% 31% Graph 2 Age We questioned students from first, second and third grade. They were born between years of 1995 and All of them are still minors.

3 Have you ever had a full glass of alcoholic drink? YES NO 21% 79% Graph 3 First question The majority (79%) of students had a full glass of alcohol, only 21% of students have never drunk a full glass of alcoholic drink. With one glass we mean standard dose of alcohol, which is 14 grams ( can of beer, glass of wine, shot glass of hard liquor drink). Have you ever had more than 4 drinks in one occasion? YES NO 41% 59% Graph 4 Second question More than a half of students drank more than it is safe to drink in one occasion; that is 4 alcoholic drinks in one occasion.

4 From who or where do you usually get alcohol? buy it in a shop buy it in bar or restaurant Buy it in a nightclub From friends From older siblings Get it at home Graph 5 Third question Students get alcohol from different sources, mostly illegally because they are not allowed to buy it in shop or anywhere else by themselves. On average they spend 5.30 euro per month, but some of them spend higher amounts of money for alcohol, for example the highest amount spent (in our questionnaire) was 30 euro (female, 1998), there were 19 students that spent more than 10 euro. But there are some that did not spend any money On party When in the past month did you drink alcohol? Because of problems (school, family etc.) I drink every day Because my friends were drinking I was forced to drink Other Graph 6 Fifth question The most common answer was the first one, some answered that they drink because of problems. Those who circled the last answer said that they drank because they were thirsty or wanted to celebrate.

5 At home Where do you usually drink alcohol? In a bar or restaurant In a nightclub In the street or park At my friend s house At a sporting event Elsewhere Nizi Graph 7 Sixth question Young people drink in different places, but the most popular are their friends house public places and night clubs. Have you experienced any of the following effects of alcohol, in the past month? Graph 8 Seventh question The first and the seventh answer stand out, they are related because if you drink too much you feel drunk and may have a headache later.

6 Naslov osi 30 Do your parents allow you to drink? Yes Only moderate amount Only on special occasions No, I am not allowed to drink Other Graph 9 Eighth question Parents allow drinking alcohol but they limit the use and amount of it, but some of them completely prohibit the use of it. Small amount of people said that they do not know if they are allowed or not. Do you talk about drinking with your parents? yes no 25% 75% Graph 10 Ninth question Only a quarter of students talk about drinking with their parents. We see that these graphs are not matching, because only 25% of students talk about drinking with their parents, but approximately 70% answered they are allowed to drink, however 3 of the students do not know if they are allowed to drink. We can conclude that it is necessary to make young people to talk about drinking with their parents.

7 legal age other Graph 11 Knowledge about laws; accessibility Not allwed to drink under influence of alcohol do not know 9% know 91% Graph 12 Knowledge about laws; traffic safety When we asked about laws and restrictions regarding alcohol majority knows only about the law that prohibits a minor and an intoxicated person to buy alcohol and also that you are not allowed to drive if you are under the influence of alcohol, but only a few know the exact allowed concentration of alcohol in your blood or exhaled air. On average students evaluated, that 52% of their friends drank alcohol in the past month, but most of them did not explain why. The older students know the difference between moderate drinking and alcohol abuse; they usually explain that amount and frequency are the main difference. The first graders do not know how to distinguish between those two.almost everyone agrees that drinking is becoming a problem among young people, but they have different opinions of drinking. Some say that it is totally acceptable or even healthy; however others are totally against it.

8 Discussion With this questionnaire we wanted to find out what is the situation in our school, but we think that situation in other schools is different, based on the results of national institute for health, which show that there are less people in gymnasium that drink alcohol every week. Based on our questionnaire results we believe that drinking is becoming a big problem in Slovenia because more than 50% drank more than recommended. Another proof for that is the result from publication of the National institute for health where we can see that Slovenia is above average regarding the amount of young people that drink weekly and the amount of those who were intoxicated more than twice. We can confirm one of our hypotheses that most of the students had a full glass of alcoholic drink. Another problem is the accessibility of alcohol; most of it is bought in shops or nightclubs even though the minors are not allowed to buy it. Five euro per month in not a lot of money, but there are some exceptions that shocked us. As mentioned a female respondent wrote that she spent 30 euro for alcohol and there were some of them that spent a bit less but still a lot. We were really surprised that these are mostly were females from first grade. As we predicted the most common places to drink are public areas, nightclubs and their friend s house. Young people usually drink on parties to have fun and fit in and are influenced by their peers. Almost no one drinks because of the problems, which is good because if this is your reason you have higher chance to become alcohol addict. The most common reasons for drinking in Slovenia are to relax, to feel more confident and to forget about problems, to fit in and become more popular among their peers, the accessibility, advertisement of alcoholic drinks and social tolerance (Alkohol v Sloveniji, 2013). Almost a half of respondents have suffered from at least one of the short term consequences of alcohol, the most common answer is that they felt drunk. We expected that because this is the first sign of intoxication. Around one quarter answered that they had a headache later which means that they drank too much alcohol. The hypothesis: Parents don t allow drinking, or they are restricting usage of it. is only not correct, because only 22% are not allowed to drink. Most of the parents allow drinking only on special occasions or in moderate amounts; they restrict the usage of alcohol. Another problem that we found is that young people are usually not talking about alcohol with their parents.

9 The older students are better educated and more grown up so they know the difference between moderate drinking and alcohol abuse. Their answers were: - Abuse is when you drink every day, but moderate is drinking only on special occasions (frequency). - Amount and frequency. - When you drink to feel better or stop being depressed that is an abuse. When you know when to stop and do not do anything you would not have done otherwise, that is ok. The first graders do not know how to distinguish between those two, because a lot of them passed the question. Through the years students create their opinion about drinking. The older students are split in two groups; there are some who agree with drinking and other who are against it. Almost everyone agrees that drinking is becoming a problem among young people; however a lot of them drink anyway. Based on our findings we can conclude that students underrated the amount of the friends that drank alcohol in past month, this shows that we are not aware enough of drinking problem. As we expected most of the respondents know about law regarding legal age and law that restricts driving if influenced by alcohol. These are most known laws, but are not followed strictly enough.

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