Young Australians Alcohol Reporting System (YAARS)

Overview

The Young Australians Alcohol Reporting System (YAARS) aims to investigate higher risk drinking practices among Australian adolescents.

YAARS was first trialled in 2013 in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Bunbury (regional WA). In 2016 and 2017, 3,500 14-19 year olds were surveyed in every jurisdiction of Australia. These young people were selected as they were engaging in drinking patterns that were associated with risk of harm.

Our participants described their most recent risky drinking session, including how much they drank, where they drank, the types of beverages they had, some of the outcomes of this consumption, and how they tried to keep safe while drinking. We asked about these experiences to determine which factors contribute to, or protect young people from alcohol related harms.

YAARS is run by the National Drug Research Institute (Curtin University) with collaborating partners from the University of New South Wales (NSW), Monash University (VIC), the University of Tasmania (TAS), Flinders University (SA), ACT Health (ACT), Charles Darwin University (NT), and the University of Queensland (QLD). The team is supported by the Commonwealth Department of Health to promote the health and wellbeing of young people.

YAARS outputs have been widely disseminated, including through peer reviewed publications, extensive media coverage, and the Australian National Alcohol Strategy 2019–2028.

Outputs

National report

This comprehensive report describes the findings from the 3,500 surveys conducted with risky drinking 14-19 year old Australians from October 2016 to March 2017.

While in recent years many Australian teenagers choose not to drink at all, in 2016 one in five 14-19 year olds still drank at levels that put them at risk of injury, at least once a month (NDSHS 2017). YAARS caters to the young people who are overrepresented in alcohol-related harm statistics, but underrepresented in mainstream Australian health surveys.

This national report describes these risky drinkers’ usual alcohol use patterns, their most recent risky drinking session, and a range of other related health behaviours and outcomes from the past 12 months.

Bulletins by jurisdiction

These four-page bulletins provide a graph-based overview of each state and territory’s ‘most recent risky drinking session’ 2016-17 findings.

• ACT bulletin from YAARS 2016-17
• NSW bulletin from YAARS 2016-17
• NT bulletin from YAARS 2016-17
• QLD bulletin from YAARS 2016-17
• SA bulletin from YAARS 2016-17
• TAS bulletin from YAARS 2016-17
• VIC bulletin from YAARS 2016-17
• WA bulletin from YAARS 2016-17

Bulletins by topic

These four page graph-based bulletins are a summary of some of the peer-reviewed articles we wrote using the 2013 YAARS data.

• The 'who' 'where' and 'why' of pre-drinking (Pre-drinking part 1 of 2)
• 'What' was consumed, and 'how much' time and money were invested pre-drinking (Pre-drinking part 2 of 2)
• Designed to protect: impact of alcohol policy measures on young risky drinkers
• Youth perceptions of alcohol advertising: are current advertising regulations working?
• Reference lists for 2013 bulletins

Jurisdiction-specific reports

These site-reports provide state and territory specific background on the data collection context and findings from the ‘most recent risky drinking session’.

• ACT site report from YAARS 2016-17
• NSW site report from YAARS 2016-17
• NT site report from YAARS 2016-17
• QLD site report from YAARS 2016-17
• SA site report from YAARS 2016-17
• TAS site report from YAARS 2016-17
• VIC site report from YAARS 2016-17
• WA site report from YAARS 2016-17

Peer reviewed publications

Lam, T., Laslett, A., L., Fischer, J., Salom, C., L., Ogeill, R., Lubman, D., Aiken, A., Mattick, R., Gilmore, W. and Allsop, S. (2021). Disclosures of harming others during their most recent drinking session: Findings from a large national study of heavy-drinking adolescents. Drug and Alcohol Review. View web page

Lam, T., Fischer, J., Salom, C., L., Ogeil, R., Wilson, J., C., Lubman, D., Burns, L., Lenton, S., Gilmore, W., Chikritzhs, T., N., Aiken, A. and Allsop, S. (2020). Safety first: beliefs of older peers supplying alcohol to underage friends. Health Promotion Journal of Australia. View web page

Lam, T., Ogeil, R., Fischer, J., Midford, R., Lubman, D., Gilmore, W., Chikritzhs, T., N., Liang, W., Lenton, S., Aiken, A. and Allsop, S. (2020). Alcohol supply as a favour for a friend: Scenarios of alcohol supply to younger friends and siblings. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 31, (1), pp. 112-120. View web page

Lam, T., Laslett, A., L., Ogeil, R., Lubman, D., Liang, W., Chikritzhs, T., N., Gilmore, W., Lenton, S., Fischer, J., Aiken, A., Mattick, R., Burns, L., Midford, R. and Allsop, S. (2019). From eye rolls to punches: experience of harm from others’ drinking amongst risky drinking adolescents across Australia. Public Health Research & Practice, 29, (4), pp. e2941927. View web page

Lam, T., Ogeil, R., Allsop, S., Chikritzhs, T., N., Fischer, J., Midford, R., Gilmore, W., Lenton, S., Liang, W., Lloyd, B., Aiken, A., Mattick, R. and Lubman, D. (2018). Insomnia and regulation of sleep-wake cycle with drugs among adolescent risky drinkers. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 14, (9), pp. 1529-1537. View web page

Aiken, A., Lam, T., Gilmore, W., Burns, L., Chikritzhs, T., N., Lenton, S., Lloyd, B., Lubman, D., Ogeil, R. and Allsop, S. (2018). Youth perceptions of alcohol advertising: Are current advertising regulations working? Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health. View web page

Wilson, J., C., Ogeil, R., Lam, T., Lenton, S., Lloyd, B., Burns, L., Aiken, A., Gilmore, W., Chikritzhs, T., N., Mattick, R., Lubman, D. and Allsop, S. (2018). Re-thinking pre-drinking: Implications from a sample of teenagers who drink in private settings. International Journal of Drug Policy, 52, pp. 20-24. View web page

Lam, T., Lenton, S., Ogeil, R., Burns, L., Aiken, A., Chikritzhs, T., N., Gilmore, W., Lloyd, B., Wilson, J., C., Lubman, D., Mattick, R. and Allsop, S. (2017). Most recent risky drinking session with Australian teenagers. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 41, (1), pp. 105–110. View web page

Ogeil, R., Lloyd, B., Lam, T., Lenton, S., Burns, L., Aiken, A., Gilmore, W., Chikritzhs, T., N., Mattick, R., Allsop, S. and Lubman, D. (2016). Pre-drinking behaviour of young heavy drinkers: Differences based on demographics and location. Substance Use and Misuse, 51, (10), pp. 1297-1306. View web page

Lam, T., Lenton, S., Burns, L., Aiken, A., Ogeil, R., Gilmore, W., Chikritzhs, T., N., Lloyd, B., Lubman, D., Mattick, R. and Allsop, S. (2015). Alcohol policy impact on young risky drinkers and their support for proposed measures. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 39, (2), pp. 129-134. View web page

Contact

Journalists who would like to report on this research are invited to contact NDRI's communications officers at ndri@curtin.edu.au, (08) 9266 1627 or 0414 682 055.