Learners' perceptions of the 'It starts today' underage drinking pilot life orientation programme: endline report

The aim of the programme was to educate learners on the harms associated with alcohol use and to change adolescents' behaviours and perceptions pertaining to alcohol use. The role of the Human Science Research Council (HSRC) was to assess the usefulness of the programme in changing learners' perceptions, attitudes and behaviours related to underage drinking. To this end, a mixed methods, phased evaluation (see graphic 1) was conducted. Phase one comprised quantitative baseline data collection, where learners completed a survey to assess their perceptions, attitudes and behaviours related to underage drinking. The survey was conducted with a sample of learners in grades 5-12 in April 2018, prior to intervention delivery. Please refer to the baseline report for further details and results (see Groenewald, Essack, Khumalo, Timol & Nkwanyana, 2018a). Phase two of the study comprised qualitative data collection and was implemented upon completion of the intervention. Qualitative data collection was conducted with all learners in grades 5 to 12 and the aim of this phase was to assess the learners' perceptions and experiences of the intervention. Please refer to the qualitative report for further details (Groenewald, Essack, Khumalo, Nkwanyana, & Ntini, 2018b). The final phase of the evaluation consisted of a quantitative end-line survey which was conducted with learners in grades 10 to 12 only. The aim of this third Phase was to use the survey to evaluate the structured Life-orientation (LO) classroom-based programme programme. The current report describes the results obtained from this survey. The study adopted a pre-test/post-test design to assess changes in the learners' perceptions, attitudes and behaviours towards underage drinking.