Schools project tackles alcohol culture among teenagers

AlcoLOLs project group ​- credit Queen Margaret University

Researchers have hailed a pupil-led alcohol project in Edinburgh schools a success after students reported it has helped them make safer choices.

‘The AlcoLOLs’, a project co-created with Portobello High School pupils and researchers from Queen Margaret University (QMU), has been developed over three years across six Edinburgh secondary schools.

It has encouraged over 600 discussions between teenage peer groups on the social norms around Scotland’s drinking culture.

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These include perceptions that popular people drink and that it is easier to joke about drunkenness than say you’re worried about drinking.

The model is not designed to stop teenagers from drinking but to encourage safer choices, participants say.

In a new report on the project, around 76 per cent of participants surveyed said they had found it ‘useful’, while 78 per cent said they’d recommend the scheme to others.

Portobello community police officer Verity Ferry said it may have encouraged teenagers to discuss alcohol with their parents.

“There’s not as much street drinking, they seem to be doing it in a house where there’s a certain degree of protection instead of getting leathered in Rosefield Park which used to happen every single weekend.” 

Former Portobello head teacher Peigi Macarthur said there had been a reduction in alcohol-related issues which had impacted on school life.

“It’s a really great tool for youngsters to help each other navigate themselves through adolescence. The AlcoLOLs was a jewel in the crown. One of the best projects I’ve been involved in in my educational career. For me what was exciting was knowing that almost every young person in the school had had an involvement,” she said.

Researchers Emma Wood and Magda Pieczka from the QMU’s Centre for Dialogue worked with pupils to create a ‘safe space’ where they could talk openly without fear of judgement or adult involvement.

Wood said allowing young people to be more truthful with each other “profound” impact.

“Young people have told us that they rarely say what they actually feel about drinking, they say what they think they need to need to say to fit in. The AlcoLOLs approach helps them say what they really think,” she said.

The AlcoLols projects has been funded by the Robertson Trust.