The challenge
Icelandic teenagers had some of the highest rates of drinking and smoking in Europe in the 1990s.
The case
In the late 1990s, Icelandic researchers, led by the Icelandic Centre for Social Research and Analysis, worked with national and local government on a new prevention approach. Instead of drug education, it targeted risk and protective factors found in yearly surveys of every school. Parents signed agreements and joined evening walks, a curfew kept under-16s indoors late at night, and cities funded organised sport, music and clubs, including activity vouchers for families. The share of teens who reported being drunk in the past 30 days, smoking daily or trying cannabis fell steadily from 1997. By 2015 about 9% of Icelandic 10th graders reported current drinking, against an average of 48% in Europe.
Why it worked
Changing the everyday environment of teenagers, with local data guiding action, worked better than warning them about drugs; because many parts changed at once, the effect of each is hard to isolate.
Sources
- Sigfusdottir, I. D., et al. (2009). Substance use prevention for adolescents: the Icelandic Model. Health Promotion International.
- Kristjansson, A. L., et al. (2020). Development and guiding principles of the Icelandic Model for preventing adolescent substance use. Health Promotion Practice.
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