Alcohol use amongst learners in rural high school in South Africa

Abstract

BackgroundDrinking behaviour by adolescents is a significant public health challenge nationally and internationally. Alcohol use has serious challenges that continue to deprive adolescents of their normal child growth and development. Drinking is associated with dangers that include fighting, crime, unintentional accidents, unprotected sex, violence and others.AimThe aim of the study is to investigate drinking patterns, and factors contributing to drinking, amongst secondary school learners in South Africa.MethodThe sample included 177 male (46.6%) and 206 female (53.4%) respondents in the age range from 15–23 years, selected by stratified random sampling.ResultsThe results indicated that 35.5% of male and 29.7% of female respondents used alcohol. Both male and female respondents consumed six or more alcohol units (binge drinking) within 30 days; on one occasion the consumption was 17.5% and 15.9% respectively. It was found that alcohol consumption increases with age, 32.2% of 15–17 year-olds and 53.2% of 18–20 year-olds consumed different types of alcohol. It was deduced that 28.9% respondents reported that one of the adults at home drank alcohol regularly, and 9.3% reported that both their parents drank alcohol daily. It was found that 27.6% of the respondents agreed that friends made them conform to drinking. The tenth and eleventh grade reported 15.2% of male and 13.9% of female respondents were aware that alcohol can be addictive.ConclusionThis study found that age, gender, parental alcohol use and peer pressure were found to be the major contributing factors to alcohol use amongst learners Prevention campaigns such as introducing the harmful effects of alcohol use amongst learners are of utmost importance in reducing alcohol use amongst learners in South Africa.

Prevalence of alcohol consumption and its risk factors among university students: A cross-sectional study across six universities in Myanmar

“…Indeed, students with friends who consumed alcohol were seven times more likely to consume alcohol than those without. This finding concurs with the results of other studies [42,43]. For example, a study that was conducted in Thailand showed that peer influence has a significant impact on the initiation to alcohol consumption among youth [17].…”

Alcohol Consumption Patterns: A Gender Comparative Study Among High School Youth in South Africa

“…Of the current drinkers in this study, 62% were males and 38% were female. These results resonate with studies by (Flisher, Parry, Evans, Muller, & Lombard, 2003;Leteka, 2007;Chauke, van der Heever, & Hoque, 2015) which showed that males are more prone to drinking alcohol than females.…”

“…There was an even split between ciders in the survey, with the majority of both male and female respondents indicating that their drink of choice was cider. Earlier research by Newman, Shell, Ming, Jianping, and Maas, (2006) and later research by Chauke et al, (2015), both show that wine is a drink of choice for women whereas men prefer to drink beer. The current study has however also revealed that there is a small percentage (5.6%) of young people who drink traditional beer and some who drink all sorts of alcohol they can have access to.…”

“…Drinking alcohol during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, low birth weight, premature birth (Gunasekara & Wilson, 2010) and Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (Viljoen, Graig, Hymbaugh, Boyle, & Blount, 2003). Immediate effects of alcohol use on school-going youth for both gender as reported in Chauke, van der Heever, and Hoque, (2015) include school absenteeism by both gender. More male students (6.7%) reported to be absent from school, failed to do homework (11.0%), and were unable to study for a test after drinking alcohol compared to their female counterparts (3.3%, 7.6%, and 6.3% respectively).…”

Out of school youth

“…This group of adolescents tend to be more socioeconomically disadvantaged and live in households where the average per capita household income is low (27). Another study conducted in a rural school in Gauteng province found that both males and females drank high amounts of alcohol in the past month (127). Yet, this study did not take into consideration the association between financial difficulties and alcohol use.…”