Research by Dr Jude Ball from the University of Otago showed youth drinking has declined. It has provided more understanding of why this is the case.
Ball compared research from 2001 to 2022 and found a significant improvement in how students drink. In 2001, more than half of those in secondary school by year ten regularly drank and attended parties. Today only one of sixty-four year ten students interviewed reported drinking alcohol socially, and more had never had more than a few sips of alcohol.
Ball said that this change in attitude was complex and included the replacement of drinking and partying teens 20 years ago with social media and spending time online. However, there was also more awareness of alcohol-related health risks.
"This research reinforces the positive change that we have seen for some time, with fewer students under 18 drinking alcohol and those who do are drinking less hazardously", said NZABC (New Zealand Alcohol and Beverage Council) executive director Virginia Nicholls.
"Adolescent drinking has declined dramatically over the past 15 - 20 years in New Zealand and other OECD countries," said Nicholls.
According to the NZ Youth 2000 survey, an increasing proportion of secondary school students choose not to drink. The proportion of secondary students who have never drunk alcohol increased markedly from 26 percent in 2007 to 45 percent in 2019.
Over time, young people are drinking less often. In the student population, young people who used alcohol in the past month fell between 2007 and 2019, from 49 percent in 2007 to 34 percent in 2019.
It was encouraging that fewer young people drink and drink less hazardously. In 2006 and 2007, 74.5 percent of 15 to 17-year-olds had alcohol in the past year, and in 2022, this was reduced by 17.4 percent to 57.1 percent.
New Zealanders drinking culture is undergoing a cultural shift. Alcohol consumption has declined more than 25 percent since the late 1970s.
The annual survey by NZABC, which aims to understand New Zealander's views on how alcohol is perceived across several issues, found that most agreed that targeted education and support programmes would create a better understanding of responsible drinking.
One question asked what respondents thought of alcohol education programmes in schools, and 76 percent agreed that this would reduce alcohol-related harm.
"All the research tells us that the earlier you can start talking to teenagers about drinking, the less likely it is they will become hazardous drinkers – or start drinking at all, which is why education programmes are so important."
Since 2019 the Tomorrow Project, a social change charity governed by Spirits NZ, NZ Winegrowers and the Brewers Association, has funded the Life Education Trust to deliver 'Smashed'. 'Smashed' is a theatre-in-education programme with an interactive workshop for 12 and 13-year-olds.
The programme also provided practical information on what a standard drink was, counting drinks, and talked about safe drinking, binge drinking, peer pressure, better decision-making, and the availability of zero and low-alcohol drinks.
Independent research showed the programme was supporting positive changes to youth drinking culture.
"The evidence suggested pupils who attended the programme gained an increased awareness of how different forms of alcohol-related harm might impact them and their peers."
