A GROUND-breaking research project has found alcohol use among Tasmanian teenagers is not as widespread as many believe.

Research conducted at four Tasmanian high schools has revealed that up to 73 per cent of students rarely or never drink liquor.

The study was a joint initiative of the Tasmanian Institute of Law Enforcement Studies, the University of Tasmania Department of Rural Health and Tasmania Police.

Project director Dr Clarissa Hughes said while the social-norms approach had been used in the US, the Tasmanian trial was a first for Australia.

She said SNAP (Social Norms Analysis Project) had been developed based on US research which found students over-estimated how often and how much their peers drank and made decisions about their own alcohol consumption on that.

"Our strategy was to get accurate information about drinking behaviour in specific schools and then communicate the truth with the goal of reducing the pressure on students to conform to a false perception."

Dr Hughes said early results were showing a statistically significant decline in alcohol consumption and attendance at parties after students had been involved with the project.

She said the first stage of the program had involved working in four high schools at Rosebery, Queenstown, Geeveston and Huonville.

"We discovered 73 per cent of Huonville High students rarely or never drank alcohol, 83 per cent of Geeveston District High students chose non-alcoholic drinks when with friends, 77.7 per cent of Queenstown's Mountain Heights students chose non-alcoholic drinks and 63.8 per cent of Rosebery High students rarely or never went to parties where students were drinking alcohol." Dr Hughes said the results had surprised her.

"We did expect young people would have more risky stuff going on than there was," she said.

The project's second stage involved feeding the information back to the students through posters, drink bottles and wrist bands.

The third stage -- a follow-up study to determine the effect of the program -- found a significant decline in alcohol consumption and attendance at parties.

January 31, 2026