During a conference on "Education and Health" which took place in the Netherlands in September 2002, the results of the Young Minds project were presented. Students from secondary schools in twelve European countries highlighted young people’s opinions on the links between youth, culture and health. Here is how students in Spain propose to deal with the attitudes of young people towards alcohol and drugs.
Student report: It was hard to start off. At first we didn’t have a very clear idea of "what" we wanted to do. Somebody suggested writing everything that came to our minds on the blackboard to visualise it. The next step would be to handle so much information.
The students decided to divide the class in pairs, each pair choosing the idea that most appealed to them. There were so many points and ideas, as you can see below.
So here is the result of the brainstorming of Spanish students. It would be interesting to find out about the situation and attitudes of young people to alcohol and drugs in the three other countries addressing this theme.
These are some of the questions from our students:
At what age do youngsters start drinking?
How easy is it to buy alcohol? Real age when you can get it/legal age. Where?
Do police really prosecute youngsters drinking?
What norms are there? Are you allowed to drink in the street? Do you get together with your friends to drink alcohol in parks and similar places?
What methods do adults and authorities use to prevent youngsters from drinking?
Do parents know about their children’s drinking?
What makes young people drink?
Do you feel more of a man/woman?
What does alcohol make you feel?
Have your friends ever rejected you because you don’t want to drink with them?
Do young people have information about the effects of alcohol on their organisms?
Our students would also like to explore:
The positive alternatives to alcohol abuse at weekends.
Are there alternative activities for young people during the weekends? If there are, do they consider those activities attractive? Would they like to have other alternatives? Which ones?
What the press says about this problem in the different countries.
The link between the use of alcohol and the use of other drugs and whether young people use both at the same time (e.g. at a disco).
The relationship between alcohol and fights.
They are also interested in investigating about alcohol and its consequences:
Reasons why they start drinking :
- Solitude
- Influence of your friends
- Lack of information
- It’s quite easy to buy alcohol
- Feeling successful
- To enjoy themselves
- Challenges and bets
- Bars’ invitations (if you fail they give you a free drink)
- Board games (if you lose you have a drink)
- Etc.
What happens if you become an addict?
- Act without thinking
- Serious health problems
- Lose persons you love
- Changes in your personality (you become violent)
Our students have also suggested some ideas for action:
Collect press cuttings.
Make a questionnaire which should be answered by peers at school of different ages.
The questionnaire could be jointly designed by the three countries and the results compared. A question should be included on what they would like to do at weekends - that is not currently easily available to them - with a view to taking action later.
Every Friday the students in the project could produce an attractive poster with all the alternatives available in town for the weekend (official and unofficial; sports, workshops, excursions, etc.) to help other students plan a healthier weekend with fun.
For more information, please visit the project website: www.young-minds.net
Further information about the conference is available at HTTP://www.egmondconference.nl
