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Abstract
Few alcohol prevention programs focus on elementary school-aged youth, yet children develop expectancies and norms about alcohol use during the elementary school years, and many elementary school children are allowed to have sips or tastes of alcohol at home. Research on consequences of early alcohol use indicates that it can put children at increased risk of alcohol use in adolescence. Parents need guidance to understand that there are risks associated with an early introduction to alcohol and that the best course is to keep children alcohol-free. In this article we describe an innovative, theory-based program called Mysteries, Max & Me – Discovering How to be Alcohol-Free! We elaborate the conceptual foundation of the program, delineate the alcohol-specific socialization objectives of the program, and describe the home-based intervention strategies used to engage parents and 9- to 10-year old children in alcohol use prevention activities. Our aims in reporting the details of this program are to encourage other investigators and health educators to focus on childhood sipping, and to provide a programmatic example that might stimulate others to develop and evaluate similar prevention strategies.
Funding
This research is supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Grant No. R01AA016300.