Alcohol consumption and its consequences are serious problems for communities which often have to be solved at the local level. The vast numbers of people who suffer from alcohol related problems and the high costs associated with them make effective policies and programs preventing alcohol use and abuse an urgent priority. This is particularly evident for children and adolescents – groups at risk for developing alcohol related problems. At the local level, various activities may be undertaken in order to enforce law and implement effective prevention interventions. In order to engage local forces in the most effective actions, monitoring of local situation is crucial.
Aims
The proposed data template aims to provide people/groups engaged in the community with an easy-to- use guide to collect information useful to implement effective policies to reduce underage drinking. Local-level data concerning alcohol consumption by children and adolescents, its consequences, as well as, risk and protective factors are needed to evaluate whether policies are being well and effectively implemented and to facilitate interventions.
The matrix comprises of five domains of information:
1.
Alcohol legislation and policy targeting underage drinking
2.
Alcohol use by children and adolescents
3.
Factors increasing the risk of underage drinking
4.
Factors decreasing the risk of underage drinking
5.
Activity of community groups/institutions targeting underage drinking
Method
The Aim of this data template is not to conduct any primary research, but to indicate key questions that ought to be answered for any community trying to implement effective policies and interventions to reduce underage drinking. As far as possible, websites or other published sources of information/data from local government, non-statutory organizations and service providers should be used. However, despite the data source, the quality of information should be assessed, in order to make use of the most:
1.
comprehensive,

2.
adequate (concerning particular community),
3.
reliable,
4.
up-to-date, and
5.
comparable in time data.
Specific details of the type of data are as follows:
1.
Alcohol legislation and policy targeting underage drinking. The information about national and local policies create legal frames for all actions which may be undertaken in the community. They also suggest, where lobbing of community groups is needed. This information could be taken from policy documents or reports outlining the National
Government’s and local authority’s proposals to reduce alcohol use by minors.
1.
What are the current national alcohol legislations and any proposed legislation and/or policy that prioritizes prevention of underage drinking activities or programs?
2.
What are the current local/regional alcohol legislations and any proposed legislation and/or policy that prioritizes prevention of underage drinking activities or programs?
3.
What are the new policy initiatives and the benefits these policies are expected to deliver when implemented (on national and/or local level) in terms of reducing underage drinking?
4.
Who is in charge for setting alcohol policies in the local community?
Is the prevention of underage drinking a priority for local government members?

2.
Alcohol use by children and adolescents. The data describing the present scale of the problem are important from the perspective of defining objectives and priorities for community actions. What are the most severe and up-to-date problems related to underage drinking? Is it: early initiation of alcohol use, frequency of use, binge drinking, alcohol related harms, or something else? Which age, gender, minority, etc. groups are at the highest risk? In order to answer above questions the following data are needed:
1.
What is the frequency of alcohol use by adolescents in our community?
The data should be split by gender, age and kind of beverage (beer, wine, spirits, alcopops, cider) 1
2.
What is the mean quantity of alcohol use by adolescents in our community in a given time period (e.g. per week, per occasion)?
The data should be split by gender, age and kind of beverage (beer, wine, spirits, alcopops, cider)
3.
What is the frequency of binge drinking (having 5+ drinks in a row) by adolescents in our community?
The data should be split by gender, age and kind of beverage (beer, wine, spirits, alcopops, cider)
1 We do not recommend collecting data concerning use of specific brands for several reasons: 1. Asking minors about their favorite brands of alcohol beverages is unethical (may increase their interest in them); 2. Attempts to collect these kind of information indirectly (e.g. e.g. from adults working with specific groups of minors) lead to very inaccurate conclusions; 3. Practical utility of such information (to plan community actions) is rather limited because of the globalization of alcohol industry ( majority of brands belong to few syndicates)

4.
What is the mean age of drinking onset for adolescents in our community?
The data should be split by gender.
5.
What are the groups of children and adolescents at higher risk of developing alcohol related problems? Are these groups identified and recognized in our community?
6.
How many families facing alcohol or drug problems live in our community?
7.
What are the most prevalent drinking patterns among adolescents? Where, when, with whom and what alcoholic beverages are used by which groups of minors? What is the risk associated with each of the drinking patterns?
8.
Do we have any data on trends in adolescent alcohol use in our community?

3.
Factors increasing the risk of underage drinking. Answers to the below mentioned questions draw the community’s course of action to decrease problems associated with underage drinking. Research conducted in the past decades in many different countries and cultures provide good knowledge about universal (important for all children and adolescents) risk factors (e.g. poor parent-child relationships). However, for community groups/institutions, especially important may be the knowledge about factors with the strongest influence in local community. So, in order to meaningfully answer the questions below, good understanding of the specificity of the local situation is crucial.
1.
What are the most important social problems in our community (apart from underage drinking), e.g. alcohol abuse by adults, illicit drug use, unemployment, migrations, poverty?
2.
Are the social attitudes toward alcohol use by children and adolescents especially risky (liberal, indifferent)? If, yes – What are the groups presenting those attitudes?
3.
What is the availability of alcohol to minors in our community? a.
What kinds of alcohol beverages and how do they get? b.
What is the density of off-licence premises in the community?
4.
What are the promotions or advertisements of alcohol products affecting children and adolescents? What events (sport, music, etc.) attractive for youth in our community, are sponsored by the alcohol industry?
5.
What other social factors increase the risk of alcohol use among adolescents in our community (insufficient mental health promotion and prevention of mental illness service for children, adolescents and their families; poor quality of educational institutions, etc.)?

6.
Factors decreasing the risk of underage drinking. Knowing so-called protective factors, is as much important as the knowledge about risk factors. It indicates courses of actions aimed at enhancing positive factors in children’s and adolescents’ environment. Answering the questions below should draw the attention to the protective factors especially important for prevention of underage drinking in the local community.
1.
What are the social recourses supporting normal, healthy development of children and adolescents in our community (e.g. secure and caring neighborhoods, friendly schools, parents engaged in children’s life)? Which of these factors and how may be strengthen by community actions?
2.
What are the possibilities of children and adolescents engagement in pro-social activities (helping older people, caring about environment, peer-to-peer activities, etc.)? How can we support pro-social activities of youth?
3.
How the community acknowledge good behaviors and achievements of children and adolescents? What are the other possibilities to reinforce positive behaviors?
4.
What are the social rules (limits) concerning children’s and adolescents’ behaviors in families, schools, neighborhoods, etc. which may prevent underage drinking? Are the consequences of theses rules braking meaningful for minors?
How theses rules may be enforced?

7.
Activity of community groups/institutions targeting underage drinking. Any new activity should fill the gaps or enhance the activities already implemented in/for the community. Therefore, information about who and what is doing in the field of underage drinking prevention is crucial for planning. In order to eliminate unethical practices, cases of possible conflict of interests of groups/institutions involved in prevention (e.g. alcohol industry sponsorship) should be reported and given for public information.
1.
What are the activities to reduce underage drinking in our community? E.g.: a.
Control of alcohol advertisements in public places? b.
Control of alcohol sales and consumption at youth and family-oriented public events and in public places (parks, beaches)? c.
Control of off-licence density? d.
Evidence-based prevention programs in schools and other settings? e.
Public awareness campaigns to educate parents and other adults about the law restrictions concerning alcohol accessibility for youth and/or health and social consequences of alcohol use by minors? f.
Services supporting children raising in families facing alcohol related problems?
2.
What groups/institutions in our community are active in the prevention of underage drinking? Are they, or their activities, supported by the alcohol industry?
3.
What is the scope of activity of each of the above mentioned groups/institutions
(number of projects targeting youth, number of project’s recipients, forms of activities)?
4.
How visible in the community is each of the groups/institutions active in the field

of underage drinking? Which groups/institutions are the most visible?
5.
What kind of problems or barriers these institutions face in our community? g.
What about cooperation between main stakeholders? h.
What about funding and technical support? i.
What about their competencies to provide effective prevention to the community?