Teenage girls in Malta have the second highest monthly prevalence of heavy episodic drinking (five or more drinks on one occasion) when compared to 15/16-year-old girls from other countries that participated in the Mediterranean School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (MedSPAD) (40.6% vs northern MedSPAD average 33.7%).

The MedSPAD project, which falls under the Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe, aims to provide information about potentially addictive behaviours among young people in the Mediterranean region. The report presents data and comparative, contextual information on, inter alia, national legislation and policies on alcohol, tobacco, drugs and gambling. Malta participated through the Foundation for Social Welfare Services (FSWS) research team.

The countries that participated in the MedSPAD study were Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain, which represented northern MedSPAD, and Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, representing southern MedSPAD.

The data was collected from just over 34,000 students in 11 countries. The topics that were investigated in the 2020-2021 MedSPAD questionnaire were: tobacco, alcohol, tranquillisers without a doctor’s prescription, cannabis and other substances, gambling, gaming and social media use, among others.

Malta ranked fourth highest in perceived availability of alcoholic drinks when compared to other MedSPAD countries including Croatia, Greece, Spain and Portugal.

In Malta, girls (88.2%) and boys (82.4%) see alcohol as accessible as is the case with the majority of the other countries including Italy, France and Cyprus. In southern Mediterranean countries, such as Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, boys ranked higher overall compared to girls (19% compared to 13.4% in girls).

Claudette Abela Baldacchino is director, Research Department at the Foundation for Social Welfare Services (FSWS) and Stephanie Dimech is research executive at the FSWS.

Read the full article on the Times of Malta new website X2. For more child-related articles, click here.

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