Adolescents and alcohol: an explorative audience segmentation analysis

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-12-742

BMC Public Health. 2012; 12: 742.

Published online 2012 September 5. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-12-742

PMCID: PMC3490719

Adolescents and alcohol: an explorative audience segmentation analysis

Jolanda Mathijssen,¹ Meriam Janssen,^1,² Marja van Bon-Martens,^1,² and Ien van de Goor¹

¹Tranzo Department, Academic Collaborative Centre for Public Health Brabant, Tilburg University, Post Office Box 90153 5000, Tilburg, LE, The Netherlands

²Department of Health Promotion, Regional Health Service, Hart voor Brabant, 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands

Corresponding author.

Jolanda Mathijssen: j.j.p.mathijssen/at/uvt.nl; Meriam Janssen: Janssen4/at/uvt.nl; Marja van Bon-Martens: m.j.h.vanbon/at/uvt.nl; Ien van de Goor: l.vandegoor/at/uvt.nl

Received February 7, 2012; Accepted August 27, 2012.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Background

So far, audience segmentation of adolescents with respect to alcohol has been carried out mainly on the basis of socio-demographic characteristics. In this study we examined whether it is possible to segment adolescents according to their values and attitudes towards alcohol to use as guidance for prevention programmes.

Methods

A random sample of 7,000 adolescents aged 12 to 18 was drawn from the Municipal Basic Administration (MBA) of 29 Local Authorities in the province North-Brabant in the Netherlands. By means of an online questionnaire data were gathered on values and attitudes towards alcohol, alcohol consumption and socio-demographic characteristics.

Results

We were able to distinguish a total of five segments on the basis of five attitude factors. Moreover, the five segments also differed in drinking behavior independently of socio-demographic variables.

Conclusions

Our investigation was a first step in the search for possibilities of segmenting by factors other than socio-demographic characteristics. Further research is necessary in order to understand these results for alcohol prevention policy in concrete terms.

Keywords: Audience segmentation, Adolescents, Alcohol use

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