Does excessive alcohol use in teenagers affect their everyday prospective memory?

Heffernan, Tom, O'Neill, Terence, Ling, Jonathan, Holroyd, Steve, Bartholomew, Janice and Betney, Gary (2006) Does excessive alcohol use in teenagers affect their everyday prospective memory? Clinical Effectiveness in Nursing, 9 (S3). e302-e307. ISSN 1361 9004

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Abstract

Objectives: To investigate everyday memory processes in teenagers who drink excessive amounts of alcohol (drinking above the 14/21 units-per-week recommended for females/males respectively), compared with low-dose controls. To consider what implications putative deficits might have upon prevention and potential treatment issue relating to alcohol misuse in teenagers. Design: Existing groups. Setting: Testing took place in quiet rooms in colleges in North-East of England. Participants: 86 teenagers studying at colleges in the North-East of England were tested, 55 of whom were excessive drinkers and 31 drank below the 'safe limits'. Main Outcome Measures: Self-report measures; Prospective Memory Questionnaire and UEL Drug-Use Questionnaire. Results: After controlling for tobacco and strategy use (no other between-group differences were found on the non-memory measures), the excessive alcohol group reported more lapses in memory in their long-term and short-term everyday prospective memory functioning, than the low-dose control group. Conclusions: The findings suggest that teenagers who use excessive amounts of alcohol have selective deficits in their ability to engage in day-to-day activities that rely on memory. Identifying such deficits may help in prevention campaigns and the development of strategies to combat these difficulties may be a useful addition to the knowledge and skills in nurse training.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Alcohol, memory impairment, PMQ, prospective memory, teenagers
Subjects:	C800 Psychology
Department:	Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Psychology
Depositing User:	Becky Skoyles
Date Deposited:	29 Jan 2015 15:07
Last Modified:	12 Oct 2019 16:28
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/20099

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