Intention to consume alcohol among adolescents in technical vocational education

Introduction: Excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages by adolescents, constitutes an emerging health problem, whose solution has become a global priority. The immediate determinant for the execution of a behavior is the intention of the individual, so it is a precise moment to apply preventive actions. Objectives: To explore the intention to consume alcohol and its relationship with sociodemographic and consumption variables. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out with 143 adolescents between 15 and 18 years of age, selected by simple random sampling. They were administered the alcohol use intention questionnaire. Results: 84.6% of the adolescents had consumed alcohol; 45.5% were 18 years old and 57.9% were male. The age of onset of consumption was 15 years for 41.3 %. The mean score on the attitude scale was significantly higher in consumers (p= 0.000). Attitude is the dimension that contributed most to the initiation of alcohol consumption (Wald= 14.56; p= 0.000). Conclusions: Adolescents are characterized by being mostly consumers of alcoholic beverages, with a predominance of male sex and an average age of onset of consumption of 15 years. The fundamental variable favoring the intention to consume alcohol is the positive attitude towards consumption, frequently reinforced in the social and family environment.