December 2004 CAAN quarterly survey

Thank you to all the CAAN members and GrogWatch subscribers who participated in the December 2004 CAAN quarterly survey. The rate of return of surveys was nearly 50% which amounted to about 200 replies.

CAAN conducts the quarterly surveys to ascertain what our members and subscribers think about alcohol issues and the results give us guidance as to what issues are out there affecting the Australian community and what people want to see CAAN doing about them.

Results

The survey asked for some demographic details this time and we found that 66% of respondents were parents and 75% of respondents were female. The youngest person who replied was aged 21 while an 82 year old represented the other end of the spectrum. Teachers, care workers, alcohol and drug workers, law enforcement officers and psychologists were typical of the people who responded.

Despite the tighter advertising regulations now being in place in Australia for nearly 12 months, 57% of people were unaware that there had been any change and 80% said the new regulations had not affected advertising anyway.

90% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that regulations around alcohol advertising should be tighter and 97% believed that alcohol promotions such as competitions, giveaways, special offers, should be subject to the same regulations as advertising.

97% said that marketing and/or promotion of alcohol on the Internet should be regulated.

The second section of the survey covered licensing.

21% of respondents said they did not know if licensing laws were adequately enforced in their state while 49% said enforcement could be improved. Suggestions for improving enforcement included increasing resources for police and greater inforcement of IDs to reduce underage drinking.

The majority of respondents (65%) said that licensing laws were useful to very useful in reducing supply to young people while 57% said the laws were not useful in preventing harmful drinking by adults.

57% said licensing laws should address point of sale advertising.

The third section of the survey researched community standards which is an important gauge for CAAN in its advocacy activities.

Over half the respondents (55%) said that since they became involved with CAAN they had become more aware of alcohol advertisements that breached regulations. 90% said they would like to see less alcohol advertising near schools and 86% said they would like to see less on public transport.

81% said they would like to see interest groups protest against inappropriate alcohol advertising while only 34% said they would know what to do about inappropriate alcohol advertising if CAAN didn't exist.

The next few questions, while only requiring a tick in a box, provoked extra responses from our respondents which indicated that parental supply of alcohol to young people is a difficult issue.

40% said it was not appropriate for a young person to be given a drink before the age of 18 while 25% applied the age limit of 16. 14% said 15 was the right age while 6% said under 14 was safe.

34% said they disagreed or strongly disagreed that giving alcohol to teenagers in the home taught responsible drinking. 45% said that giving alcohol to teens in the home did teach responsible behaviour.

73% said that allowing early alcohol use did not protect teens from developing problems later in life.

91% said that young people were strongly influenced by their parent's attitudes on alcohol while 92% said that young people were strongly influenced by their parent’s drinking patterns.