news-record.com

RALEIGH (AP) — North Carolina schools will target students as young as 10 with an aggressive anti-drinking campaign that teaches them to understand how advertising drives their decision-making.

The 10-lesson project was launched Wednesday by Mary Easley, wife of Gov. Mike Easley, and acting U.S. Surgeon General Kenneth Moritsugu. It's meant to discourage middle school students from drinking by teaching them how marketing can manipulate their choices.

"We can control and enhance our children's ability to deconstruct and critically think about the messages they receive in commercial advertising," Mary Easley said.

The program encourages students to ask critical questions about advertisements they see and hear: Who paid for the ad? Who is the target? What was left out of the message?

North Carolina education officials will implement the program in all middle schools by January.

Moritsugu said alcohol is the substance most abused by young people in the United States, with an estimated 11 million underage drinkers, and has called for a nationwide effort to fight it.

He said, while other schools and states have used similar literacy programs, North Carolina's is the first backed by scientific research.

"This is really something that has a great potential to springboard around the country," Moritsugu said.

Researchers found that the program's "brief intervention" helped students increase media deconstruction skills and helped boys decrease their intention to use alcohol in the future. Two media literacy studies found no affect on middle school girls.

A 2005 survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control found that 35 percent of North Carolina middle school students report having had a drink of alcohol, other than just a few sips. Twenty-one percent of high school students said they had their first drink before age 13.

"That's the age when boys and girls really start getting hooked into popular culture," Easley said.

She said the critical thinking course can help young people make decisions not only about drinking and tobacco, but about other major issues such as who to vote for in a presidential election.

"These are skills that will help them better negotiate 21st century life," she said.