This report presents the results of the ALAC Youth Drinking Monitor for 2000; interviewing for which was completed between 17 March and 4 April with a total sample of 303 Youth aged between 14 and 18. As such, this survey continues the monitoring series commenced with the establishment of a Benchmark survey in 1997 to evaluate and give direction to ALAC’s Youth Drinking Campaign.
Methodology
As for previous survey monitors, the current ALAC Youth Drinking Monitor was conducted by telephone, with BRC interviewers calling randomly selected households and then, within selected households, randomly selecting Youth aged between 14 and 18 inclusive. Some initial focus was given to contacting male Youth due to the fact that they are more mobile and are therefore less likely to be at home.
A total sample of 303 Youth were interviewed between 17 March and 4 April. A minimum of three attempts were made to interview a particular Youth once they had been selected.
Where the Youth selected was under 15 years of age, interviewers completed an intermediary step by asking for the consent of their parent or caregiver. This is in accordance with the Code of Practice of the Market Research Society of New Zealand Inc.
As for previous survey monitors, quotas were set so that half the sample interviewed was Ma¯ori and the other half non-Ma¯ori. This was necessary so that the results for Ma¯ori Youth could be examined with confidence. To facilitate the expeditious contacting of Ma¯ori Youth, Ma¯ori households were contacted via the Electoral Enrolment Centre’s enrolment databases, although some Ma¯ori households were contacted as a result of random dialling procedures.
It should be noted that the response rate for this survey monitor was very high at 71% and may be largely accounted for by the methods used to select households.
A copy of the questionnaire used in the interviewing is included in this report as an appendix.
At the processing stage, the interviewed sample was weighted in order to ensure the sample used for analysis purposes was representative of the population group covered by the survey monitor. This is a common practice in market research. The weighting parameters used for this were based on the 1996 Census of Dwellings and Population and specifically related to the variables of age, gender and ethnicity for the age group in question (Statistics New Zealand).
As a result of the weighting, the maximum sampling error for this survey monitor is plus or minus 6.6% at the 95% confidence level.