Legal Research on the Effects of Underage Drinking

描述(由申请人提供)： 摘要：美国国家科学院(NAS)医学研究所6年前发布了一份关于减少该国未成年人饮酒策略的综合报告。该报告回应了国会的一项要求，即审查广泛的联邦、州和非政府项目，包括环境干预和以青少年和父母的态度和行为为重点的项目，并制定有效的战略，以减少和防止未成年人饮酒。由此产生的建议政策体现在目前的一套16项法律中，这些法律已经被许多州采用，以控制未成年人饮酒和不良驾驶。然而，没有一个州颁布了所有16项法律(例如，犹他州制定了15项最低法定饮酒年龄21岁(MLDA-21)法律，而肯塔基州只制定了7项)。此外，许多拥有这些法律的州为它们规定了重要的例外情况。NAS的报告有很大的潜力影响关于MLDA的州法规及其执行。NAS的报告也具有重要意义，因为它指出了改善执法的必要性。然而，这些法律在一些州的具体条款实际上限制了它们的执行。因此，有必要确定与未成年人饮酒和不良驾驶有关的16项法律的效力，并确定在各州通过和/或加强这些法律是否会提高其整体效力。使用酒精政策信息系统和其他来源，该应用程序请求资金以之前的研究为基础，记录MLDA法律，以支持对其有效性的研究，并评估扩大的两项法律(使用虚假身份证明和社会东道主责任)。其具体目标是(1)记录10部MLDA-21法规的生效日期，使研究人员能够研究这些附加法律在减少未成年人饮酒和未成年人饮酒的各种后果方面的有效性；以及(2)使用结构方程建模方法，确定虚假身份识别和社会宿主责任法律对致命车祸中未成年饮酒司机的影响，以更准确地解释法律对同时联合结果的不同影响。虚假身份识别和社会寄主责任法律每年的存在/不存在将与其他一般安全法律的存在/不存在交叉列出，以确保这些二元预测因素之间不存在共线性问题。 公共卫生相关性： 与公共卫生的相关性：尽管大多数证明MLDA法律有效性的研究主要集中在购买和拥有这两个核心法律上，但其他14项立法改进几乎没有得到研究。最近，旨在废除导致所有州将MLDA定为21的联邦立法的全国选择责任运动(www.Chooseresponsibility.org)突出了这种知晓状态的局限性。利用酒精政策信息系统和其他来源，本申请申请资金，以增加和改进10项MLDA法律的文件，以支持对其有效性的研究，并评估扩大的两项法律(使用虚假身份证明和社会寄主责任)。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Abstract: The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Institute of Medicine released a comprehensive report 6 years ago on strategies to reduce underage drinking in this country. The report responded to a congressional request for a review of a broad range of federal, state, and nongovernmental programs, including environmental interventions and programs focused on youth and parent attitudes and behaviors, and for the development of effective strategies to reduce and prevent underage drinking. The resulting recommended policies are embodied in the current set of 16 laws that have been adopted by many states to control underage drinking and impaired driving. No state, however, has enacted all 16 laws (e.g., Utah has enacted 15 of the minimum legal drinking age 21 (MLDA-21) laws, whereas Kentucky has enacted only 7). Moreover, many states that have these laws provide for important exceptions to them. The NAS report has substantial potential to influence state statutes on MLDA and their enforcement. The NAS report is also significant because it points to the need for improved enforcement. Yet, the specific provisions of these laws in some states actually restrict their enforcement. Thus, there is a need to determine the effectiveness of the 16 laws relating to underage drinking and impaired driving and to determine whether adopting and/or strengthening these laws in the states will increase their overall effectiveness. Using the Alcohol Policy Information System and other sources, this application requests funds to build on previous research to document the MLDA laws to support studies of their effectiveness and to evaluate two of the expanded laws (use of a fake identification and social host liability). The specific aims are to (1) document effective dates of 10 MLDA-21 statutes to enable researchers to study the effectiveness of these additional laws in reducing underage drinking and the various consequences of underage drinking; and (2) determine the effects of the fake identification and social host liability laws on underage drinking drivers in fatal crashes using structural equation modeling methods to account more precisely for the differential effects of laws on simultaneous joint outcomes. The fake identification and social host liability laws' annual presence/absence will be cross-tabulated against the presence/absence of the other general safety laws to ensure that there is not a collinearity problem among these binary predictors. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Public Health Relevance: Although most studies demonstrating the effectiveness of the MLDA laws have focused primarily on the two core laws, purchase and possession, the other 14 legislative enhancements have received little study. This limitation in the state of knowledge has recently been highlighted by the national Choose Responsibility campaign (www.chooseresponsibility.org) directed at repealing the federal legislation that resulted in all states setting the MLDA at 21. Using the Alcohol Policy Information System and other sources, this application requests funds to increase and improve the documentation of 10 MLDA laws to support studies of their effectiveness and to evaluate two of the expanded laws (use of a fake identification and social host liability).