In an attempt to half the increasing involvement of young people in alcohol-related traffic accidents and other forms of alcohol abuse, the Oklahoma legislature has just passed a bill raising the minimum legal age for drinking 3.2 beer from 18 to 21. The proposed research will examine the utility of this type of legislation by looking at the behavior of young college students before and after passage of the bill. This will be done through anonymous questionnaires measuring incidence of drinking, quantity-frequency of beer, wine and liquor consumption, drinking patterns, problems resulting from drinking, and a number of descriptive and causal variables relating to alcohol consumption. In order to determine what changes might take place following implementation of such a bill, these data will be compared with similar information gathered in 1981. The baseline data were gathered by self-administered, anonymous questionnaires completed in a classroom setting, and replication will be done in a manner which duplicates the baseline methodology as closely as possible. New data will be gathered as soon as is feasible after implementation of the bill and on a semester basis for the remainder of the funding period.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter