Applying Behavioral Theory to an Innovative School-Based Program for Preventing Underage Drinking and Impaired Driving
Edwena Corley
African American Future
A Review and Analysis of the American Journal of Health Studies’ Article
Applying Behavioral Theory to an Innovative School-Based Program For Preventing Underage Drinking and Impaired Driving
Diane Everett
September 24, 2012
The article yields to the dangerous reality that underage drinking is a problem. The article further notes that it is also met publicity that peaks and shifts throughout decades. Currently all drunk drivers are being targeted on a national scale, but teen driving is not being addressed head on as it had been previously. One model and theory, the transtheoretical model and the social cognitive theory, were presented within the article in an effort to explain why underage drinking takes place and also why adolescents who have been drinking, regardless of whether or not they are intoxicated, believe that they are able to function and drive at the same rate and with the same control as when they are sober. They also present solutions at interpersonal and community levels. The interpersonal level of change seeks to alter peer influence and the community level promotes positive behaviors such as abstaining from alcohol and denounces negative behaviors such as drinking and driving. The latter is generally presented in the form of real life scenarios.
Price et al. (2009) notes that alcohol is the premier drug of choice for adolescents, with the onset of underage drinking occurring, on average, around age 13. In 2001, 13% percent of high school students reported operating a vehicle on one of more occasions after or while drinking alcohol, and 31% reported being a passenger to a peer who had been drinking. These statistics are startling but not as much as the following facts derived from that same year: 3,608 drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 were killed and an additional 337,000 were injured in car crashes. Approximately 25% of drivers between the
African American Future
A Review and Analysis of the American Journal of Health Studies’ Article
Applying Behavioral Theory to an Innovative School-Based Program For Preventing Underage Drinking and Impaired Driving
Diane Everett
September 24, 2012
The article yields to the dangerous reality that underage drinking is a problem. The article further notes that it is also met publicity that peaks and shifts throughout decades. Currently all drunk drivers are being targeted on a national scale, but teen driving is not being addressed head on as it had been previously. One model and theory, the transtheoretical model and the social cognitive theory, were presented within the article in an effort to explain why underage drinking takes place and also why adolescents who have been drinking, regardless of whether or not they are intoxicated, believe that they are able to function and drive at the same rate and with the same control as when they are sober. They also present solutions at interpersonal and community levels. The interpersonal level of change seeks to alter peer influence and the community level promotes positive behaviors such as abstaining from alcohol and denounces negative behaviors such as drinking and driving. The latter is generally presented in the form of real life scenarios.
Price et al. (2009) notes that alcohol is the premier drug of choice for adolescents, with the onset of underage drinking occurring, on average, around age 13. In 2001, 13% percent of high school students reported operating a vehicle on one of more occasions after or while drinking alcohol, and 31% reported being a passenger to a peer who had been drinking. These statistics are startling but not as much as the following facts derived from that same year: 3,608 drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 were killed and an additional 337,000 were injured in car crashes. Approximately 25% of drivers between the
Bibliography: Price, M. A., Salazar, C. I., Villarreal, C. L., Guerra, C. M., Villarreal, R., & Stewart, R. M. (2009). Applying Behavioral Theory To an Innovative School-Based Program For Preventing Underage Drinking and Impaired. American Journal of Health Studies, 24(1), 223-231. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.