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Talk About Alcohol

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Evidence rating: 2+
Cost rating: 1

Talk About Alcohol is a school-based intervention aimed at reducing alcohol related problems in young people between the ages of 11 and 18.

Teachers teach young people about the harmful effects of alcohol and provide them with strategies for refraining from alcohol use.

EIF Programme Assessment

Evidence rating: 2+
Level 2 indicates that the programme has evidence of improving a child outcome from a study involving at least 20 participants, representing 60% of the sample, using validated instruments. This programme does not receive a rating of 3 as its best evidence is not from a rigorously conducted RCT or QED evaluation
Cost rating: 1
A rating of 1 indicates that a programme has a low cost to set up and deliver, compared with other interventions reviewed by EIF. This is equivalent to an estimated unit cost of less than €125. This figure is based on an analysis of UK costs and a conversion rate of 1.19.

What does the plus mean?

The plus rating indicates that a programme’s best available evidence is based on an evaluation that is more rigorous than a level 2 standard but does not meet the criteria for level 3.

Child outcomes

This programme can affect outcomes for children in Active and healthy, physical and mental wellbeing.

According to the best available evidence for this programme's impact, it can achieve the following positive outcomes for children:

Preventing substance abuse

Delay in onset drinking

based on study 1a

Improved knowledge about alcohol

based on study 1a

Delay in onset drinking

based on study 1b

This programme also has evidence of supporting positive outcomes for couples, parents or families that may be relevant to a commissioning decision. Please see About the evidence for more detail.

Who is it for?

The best available evidence for this programme relates to the following age-groups:

Preadolescents Adolescents

How is it delivered?

The best available evidence for this programme relates to implementation through these delivery models:

  • Group

Where is it delivered?

The best available evidence for this programme relates to its implementation in these settings:

  • Secondary school
  • Sixth-form or FE college

How is it targeted?

The best available evidence for this programme relates to its implementation as:

  • Universal

Where has it been implemented?

  • United Kingdom

Ireland provision

This programme has not been implemented in Ireland.

Ireland evaluation

This programme’s best evidence does not include evaluation conducted in Ireland.

About the programme

What happens during the delivery?

How is it delivered?

  • Talk About Alcohol is delivered in six sessions of 50 minutes duration each by one teacher to groups of children.

What happens during the intervention?

  • Teachers are provided with free tools to encourage students to make informed decisions and feel confidence to manage difficult situations. 
  • The Talk about Alcohol programme is designed so that teachers can ‘pick and mix’ from a range of activities, films, activity sheets, and resource according the age, ability and experience of the group. 
  • Six lessons are developed under the following topics: Assessing knowledge, alcohol and its effects, social and physical, units and guidelines, alcohol and the law, and staying safe.
  • Information booklets are also made available to students and their parents.

What are the implementation requirements?

Who can deliver it?

  • The practitioner who delivers this programme is an PSHE professional, teacher, or youth leader with NFQ-7/8 level qualifications.


What are the training requirements?

  • Practitioner training is recommended but not obligatory. 
  • The practitioners have two hours of programme training. Booster training of practitioners is not required. 
  • The PSHE professional, teacher, or youth leader are trained By AET specialist staff. The TAA programme can be self-administered but two hours training in its methodology and interactive resources is recommended.

How are the practitioners supervised?

  • Practitioners (PSHE leads, teachers and youth workers) are supported with six newsletters of updates and implementation/guidance advice each year as well as with phone/email support ongoing.


What are the systems for maintaining fidelity?

  • Training manual 
  • Other printed material 
  • Other online material 
  • Face-to-face training 
  • The TAA programme is fully supported online via www.alcoholeducationtrust.org, organised by topic and by year group and with an interactive learning zone via www.talkaboutalcohol.com 
  • Practitioners are further supported with bi termly updates, new resources, changes in the law or policy. 
  • They can also email or phone for advice on the programme and its implementation or delivery.

Is there a licensing requirement?

There is no licence required to run this programme.


How does it work? (Theory of Change)

How does it work?

  • Talk About Alcohol assumes that young people will be more likely to delay the age at which they start drinking and refrain from drinking too much if they know about the social and physical effects of alcohol, the law, social norms and resilience strategies. 
  • Young people are therefore taught about the harmful physical and social effects of alcohol and are provided with strategies for making healthy balanced decisions about when to drink or if to drink, and how much to drink. 
  • In the short term, young people are more confident in resisting the temptation or peer pressure to drink.
  • In the longer term, young people will delay the age at which they start drinking (after age 15) and will be less likely to binge drink.

Intended outcomes

  • Achieving in all areas of learning and development
  • Active and healthy, physical and mental wellbeing
  • Active and healthy, physical and mental wellbeing
  • Active and healthy, physical and mental wellbeing
  • Safe and protected from harm

Contact details

Kate Hooper
kate@alcoholeducationtrust.org

http://www.alcoholeducationtrust.org
http://www.talkaboutalcohol.com


About the evidence

Talk about Alcohol's most rigorous evidence comes from a QED which was conducted in the UK. This is a 2-level study, which has identified a statistically signifcant positive impact on child outcomes. 

A programme receives the same rating as its most robust study, and so receives a level-2 overall.

Study 1a

Citation:Lynch et al., (2013) Lynch et al., (2014)
Design:QED
Country:United Kingdom
Sample:33 schools, 4410 children aged 12-13
Timing:Baseline (T1); 6-months post-baseline (T2); 16-18 months post-baseline (T3)
Child outcomes:
    Other outcomes:
      Study rating:2

      Lynch, S., Styles, B., Dawson, A., Worth, J., Kerr, D., Lloyd, J. (2013). Talk about alcohol: an evaluation of the Alcohol Education Trust’s intervention in secondary schools. 

      Available at:
      https://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications

      Lynch, S., Dawson, A., & Worth, J. (2014). Talk About Alcohol: impact of a school-based alcohol intervention on early adolescents. International journal of health promotion and education, 52(5), 283-299.

      Available at:
      http://www.tandfonline.com

      Study design and sample

      The first study is a QED.

      The intervention group was selected from schools that had expressed an interest in the materials but which had not yet received them. Comparison schools were selected using propensity score matching to ensure that the school-level characteristics of both groups matched as closely as possible. Comparison and intervention schools were matched according to region, percentage of students eligible for free school meals, urban/rural, Ofsted school effectiveness.

      This study was conducted in England. The sample included 33 schools, with a total of 4410 children aged 12-13. There were 2142 children in 16 intervention schools, and 2268 children in 17 comparison schools. Approximately 50% of the entire sample were female. 65% of the intervention group were white, and 79% of the comparison group were white. 

      Measures

      • Onset of drinking was measured using a survey questionnaire (child self-report)

      • Knowledge of alcohol and its effects was measured using survey questionnaire (child self-report). 
      • Frequency of drinking was measured using a survey questionnaire (child self-report).

      Findings

      This study identified statistically significant positive impact on a number of child outcomes.

      This includes onset of drinking, and knowledge of alcohol and its effects.

      This study identified statistically significant positive impact on a number of child outcomes. The conclusions that can be drawn from this study are limited by methodological issues pertaining to the treatment and comparison groups not being generated by sufficiently robust methods and unequivalent groups, hence why a higher rating is not achieved.   

      Study 1b

      Citation:Lynch et al., 2015
      Design:QED
      Country:United Kingdom
      Sample:33 schools, 4410 children aged 12-13
      Timing:3 years post-baseline (T4)
      Child outcomes:
        Other outcomes:
          Study rating:2

          Lynch, S., Worth, J. and Bradshaw, S. (2015). Evaluation of the Alcohol Education Trust’s Talk about Alcohol Intervention: Longer-Term Follow up. Slough: NFER.

          Available at:
          https://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications

          Study 1b describes follow-up findings from study 1a. 

          • Follow-up assessments were one year post-intervention.
          • Outcomes measured included: Onset of drinking (survey questionnaire, self-report), Knowledge of alcohol (survey questionnaire, self-report), and Frequency of drinking (survey questionnaire, self-report).
          • This study identified statistically significant positive impact on child outcomes. This includes onset of drinking (questionnaire survey, self-report).  
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