earticle

영어

Objectives: Recent surveys indicate that smoking, alcohol consumption, and sexual intercourse in adolescents have been increasing steadily in South Korea. This study seeks to examine relationships with socio-demographic variables, smoking, drinking behavior (early onset of drinking, drinking amount and drinking problems) and sexual intercourse among high school students in Korea. Methods: The 2011 Korean Youth Health Risk Behavior Survey, a nationwide dataset collected by the Korean Center for Disease Control, was used for analyses. The data contained a total of 35,668 (18,435 girls, 17,233 girls) high school students. Results: The rate of alcohol drinking experience and current alcohol drinkers were 65.5% and 29.5%, respectively. The prevalence of the problem drinking (defined as 2 or more points in the CRAFFT) among current drinkers was 44.7%. The factors that affected drinking behavior were sex, grade, self-rated health, the level of stress and family affluence scale. Conclusion: An analysis of a large national representative sample of Korean high school students confirmed the previous research regarding the relationship between alcohol behaviors and family affluence score (FAS). The FAS was shown to have statistically significant negative effect on adolescents’ drinking behavior. Intervention and prevention efforts for prevention of alcohol related problems should be considered.