Sweet sixteen and never been drunk? : adolescent alcohol use, predictors and consequences

Adolescent alcohol use, especially at a young age, has many negative consequences, both on the individual and the societal level. After an introduction describing a conceptual model of predictors and consequences of adolescent alcohol use, the first two chapters in this dissertation report on two studies on alcohol intoxication related admissions of adolescents in Dutch hospitals. Data collected in 2007 and 2008 underline the societal relevance of the problem of adolescent alcohol use. The number of adolescents with alcohol intoxication increases and the symptoms become more severe. \ud \ud In the remaining seven chapters, predictors of adolescent alcohol use are the main topic. The social context of alcohol use is explored in a qualitative study in which adolescents described severe alcohol related incidents they had experienced. In the next study, parents were asked about their support for governmental alcohol control policies. Then an experimental study is described into the impact of alcohol commercials and alcohol product placement in a soap series. The last four studies involve three types of alcohol availability. Regarding economic availability, the prevalence and effects of price discounts in the catering industry were explored. The role of physical availability of alcohol was investigated in a study of private drinking places, focusing their national prevalence and the characteristics of their visitors. A third part of this study involves a large sample questionnaire in which alcohol consumption of adolescent visitors and non-visitors were compared. The last two studies focus on legal availability. These studies involve the shop floor compliance with age restrictions for alcohol sales. The first study investigates compliance levels in the Netherlands in general; the second study addresses the effects of a feedback letter intervention to improve compliance

The effectiveness of ID readers and remote age verification in enhancing compliance with the legal age limit for alcohol

Currently, two different age verification systems (AVS) are implemented to enhance compliance with legal age limits for the sale of alcohol in the Netherlands. In this study, we tested the operational procedures and effectiveness of ID readers and remote age verification technology in supermarkets during the sale of alcohol. Following a trained alcohol purchase protocol, eight mystery shoppers (both underage and in the branch's reference age) conducted 132 alcohol purchase attempts in stores that were equipped with ID readers or remote age verification or were part of a control group. In stores equipped with an ID reader, 34% of the purchases were conducted without any mistakes (full compliance). In stores with remote age verification, full compliance was achieved in 87% of the cases. The control group reached 57% compliance, which is in line with the national average. Stores with ID readers perform worse than stores with remote age verification, and also worse than stores without any AVS. For both systems, in addition to effectiveness, public support and user friendliness need to be investigated. This study shows that remote age verification technology is a promising intervention that increases vendor compliance during the sales of age restricted products

User Research of a Voting Machine: Preliminary Findings and Experiences

This paper describes a usability study of the Nedap voting machine in the Netherlands. On the day of the national elections, 566 voters participated in our study immediately after having cast their real vote. The research focused on the correspondence between voter intents and voting results, distinguishing between usability (correspondence between voter intents and voter input) and machine reliability (correspondence between voter input and machine output). For the sake of comparison, participants also cast their votes using a paper ballot.\ud The machine reliability appeared to be 100%, indicating that, within our sample, all votes that had been cast were correctly represented in the output of the voting machine. Regarding usability, 1.4% of the participants had cast the wrong vote using the voting machine. This percentage was similar to that of the paper ballot. \ud Practical implications as well as experiences with this type of usability testing are discussed

Alcohol outlets near schools in a midsize Romanian city : prevalence and characteristics

Objective: alcohol availability is one of the strongest predictors of adolescent alcohol use, and subsequent harm. Alcohol outlets near schools are an important indicator of three types of availability related to adolescent alcohol use; physical (number), economic (price), and legal (compliance with age limits).\ud \ud Method: two teams with trained students (16 and 17 years old) visited all 37 schools in a 200,000 inhabitant Romanian city (Pitesti). On the spot all alcohol outlets were visited and data was collected on outlet characteristics and visitors. Also, by conducting mystery shopping purchase attempts by the researchers, compliance on the age limits for alcohol sales was tested.\ud \ud Results: a total of 40 outlets were found within a 250 meter distance around 23 schools. Alcohol turns out to be cheap, and commercial alcohol brand signs are dominantly visible. With respect to compliance with the 18-year-old Romanian age limit for alcohol sales, only eight (20%) outlets refused to sell alcohol to under aged decoy customers.\ud \ud Conclusion: adolescent alcohol availability is high on the physical, economic and legal aspect. Pitesti is the first city in\ud Romania where an international alcohol prevention project has started to reduce alcohol related consequences. This project\ud involves all relevant stakeholders, and the first new legislation on this subject had been implemented

Arbeid in het moderne arbeidsbestel

In dit hoofdstuk hebben we de belangrijkste langetermijntrends beschreven die tot het moderne arbeidsbestel hebben geleid. We onderscheiden daarbij drie arena’s: de arbeidsorganisatie, de arbeidsverhoudingen en de arbeidsmarkt. Op het terrein van de arbeidsorganisatie is er sprake van een proces van rationalisering: een allesoverheersend streven naar vergroting van de efficiëntie, door het systematisch toepassen van methoden die erop gericht zijn het arbeidsproces steeds meer berekenbaar en beheersbaar te maken. We stonden vooral stil bij de opkomst en de zegetocht van een nieuw organisatiemodel, dat tegenwoordig algemeen als het tayloristische model wordt aangeduid. Het langs de lijnen van dit model georganiseerde arbeidssysteem wordt in technisch opzicht gekenmerkt door ver doorgevoerde mechanisatie en in organisatorisch opzicht door een tot het uiterste doorgevoerde horizontale en verticale arbeidsdeling. Het is verder gericht op een zo volledig mogelijke beheersing van het gedrag van de werknemers door een combinatie van vergaande voorstructurering van hun taken, direct toezicht en prestatiebeloning. Op het terrein van de arbeidsverhoudingen is er sprake van collectivisering en institutionalisering. Deze arena begint structuur te krijgen met de opkomst van een nieuw type vakbonden, de industrie- ofwel bedrijfstakbonden. Deze bonden weten in toenemende mate werkgevers aan de onderhandelingstafel te dwingen. Dat doen de werkgevers aanvankelijk met tegenzin, maar geleidelijk ontdekken ze dat het ook voordelen heeft om zaken te doen met bonden die bereid zijn de managementprerogatieven binnen de arbeidsorganisatie te respecteren in ruil voor invloed op de arbeidsvoorwaarden én die in staat zijn hun leden te disciplineren. Zo ontstaat de arena van de collectieve arbeidsverhoudingen. Dit proces wordt actief ondersteund door de overheid, die het onder meer mogelijk maakt om de cao algemeen verbindend te verklaren. Dit hele proces komt dan door de Tweede Wereldoorlog in een stroomversnelling terecht en leidt tot een verstrengeling van werkgeversorganisaties, vakbeweging en overheid op het terrein van het sociaal-economisch beleid en de sociale zekerheid. De ontwikkelingen in de arbeidsorganisatie en de collectieve arbeidsverhoudingen werken door op de arbeidsmarkt. Daar wordt een proces van regulering zichtbaar. Deze vindt in eerste instantie haar oorsprong in overheidsmaatregelen ter bescherming van zwakke groepen op de arbeidsmarkt en ter bestrijding van de werkloosheid. Regulering vindt echter ook plaats als uitvloeisel van de in aantal en reikwijdte toenemende cao-afspraken, waarbij vooral het meer of minder objectief vaststellen van de beloningshoogte en vooral beloningsverschillen het voorwerp wordt van regeltechnisch vernuft

Using the lost letter technique to measure real-life behavioral effects of alcohol use

Introduction and aims: People’s behaviors after alcohol use are more extreme and alcohol has a narrowing effect on a person’s cognitive capacity. We tested this effect, making use of the Lost-Letter Technique (LLT), in which the return rate of “lost letters” by public mail is used to measure altruistic behavior. We hypothesized that return rates would be lower when people are under the influence of alcohol, and that an anti-alcohol prime in the address would even further decrease return rates. Design and methods: 768 letters were dropped, half of those at times when some degree of intoxication was likely versus when sober passers-by were common. Three different addressees were used to convey an anti-alcohol cue, a charitable cue, and a neutral cue. Results: The average response rate was 33.1%, and was significantly lower during late bar hours than during lunch hours (20.3% versus 45.8%). Also, when envelopes were found by people who were more likely to have consumed alcohol, anti-alcohol cues gained significantly lower response rates (12.7% versus 23.1%). Discussion and conclusions: This study confirms that alcohol use causes less altruistic behavior and different responses to alcohol-related cues, suggesting that LLT is a promising method to study people’s behavior. Future research could also focus on other substances, (mood-)states, and technology as a means of data collection