Drinking Status and Dietary habits of Middle School Students in Chungcheong Area

충청일부지역 중학생의 음주실태, 음주행동과 식습관

There are many concerns about the use and abuse of both licit and illicit substances among adolescents. This study was performed to understand the drinking status and drinking behaviur of middle school students. Self reports on drinking behaviur, dietary habits and one-day dietary records were obtained from 213 boys and 202 girls using anonymous questionnaires. One hundred and forty five of 415 students(34.9%) have experienced drinking and 48.3% of them initiated it at primary school. The motivation for first drinking was different between boys and girls; ' after sacrificial rite' for boys, ' curiosity' for girls. The most plausible reasons for drinking were ' boredom' and ' stress reduction' , and they felt the strongest desire to drink when they felt ' anger or frustration' Drinking behavior was not significantly different between male and female student except in the motivation for first drinking. But interestingly, the girls drank with friends mostly, while the boys drank with their parents. Drinking-experienced students showed significantly high rates of skipping meals and in particular skipping breakfast. DVS was found as $14.71\pm{4.51}$ and $13.95\pm{4.69}$ in non-drinking and drinking, respectively. This study showed that the drinking experience of middle school students were initiated earlier in primary school, and that drinking behavior of female students was not different with that of male student.