LÓPEZ-FRÍAS ET AL. 741 Alcohol Consumption and Academic Performance in a Population of Spanish High School Students MAGDALENA LÓPEZ-FRÍAS, PH.D., † MARÍA DE LA FE FERNÁNDEZ, PH.D., ELENA PLANELLS, PH.D., † MARÍA TERESA MIRANDA, PH.D., † JOSÉ MATAIX, PH.D., † AND JUAN LLOPIS, PH.D. † Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain Received: July 5, 2000. Revision: July 19, 2001. † Magdalena López-Frías, Elena Planells, José Mataix and Juan Llopis are also with the Department of Physiology, University of Granada. María Teresa Miranda is with the Department of Biostatistics, University of Granada. Correspondence should be addressed to Juan Llopis, Ph.D., Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de Alimentos, Universidad de Granada, C/Ramón y Cajal 4, E-18071 Granada, Spain, or via email to: jllopis@goliat.ugr.es. 741 ABSTRACT. Objective: The present study was designed to identify pat- terns of alcohol consumption among Spanish high school students and describe the relationship between alcohol intake and school performance. Method: The sample population consisted of students, aged 14 to 19 years, who were attending high school during the academic year 1994- 95 in the city of Granada in southern Spain. We studied 1,602 (861 fe- male) students (alpha error = 0.05, sampling error = 5%), using a self-administered questionnaire that contained items about individual and family demographics, quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption, and school performance. Total alcohol consumption was recorded as grams (g) of alcohol per week and per day for three categories of alco- holic drinks: wine, beer and distilled spirits. Results: The percentage of nondrinkers was 21.05% for male adolescents and 28.56% for female adolescents. The mean amount of alcohol consumed per week was larger in male than in female students (F = 18.36, 1/1,594 df, p < .001) and distilled spirits accounted for the largest proportion of alcohol consumed. No significant differences in drinking patterns were found between stu- dents at public and private schools. The risk of academic failure in- creased considerably when more than 150 g of alcohol were consumed per week (OR: 2.91; 95% CI: 1.94-4.43). Conclusions: Although we can- not draw any conclusions about the causes of the association between academic failure and teenage drinking, our results do show that the risk of failing increases together with alcohol intake. However, it should be noted that academic achievement is also influenced by many factors other than alcohol consumption. (J. Stud. Alcohol 62: 741-744, 2001) A HIGH DEGREE of social tolerance for drinking has favored the spread of alcohol consumption among Spanish adolescents and young adults since the early 1990s. There has been a tendency, in young people, for drinking patterns to become established with most drinking taking place on the weekends. This pattern of heavy weekend drinking by young persons has resulted in serious social and health consequences. The most recent report of the Spanish Drug Observatory (Ministerio del Interior, 2001) states that 40% of all adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18 years drink in public spaces (parks and squares) on Friday or Saturday night (or both); these “parties” lead to serious noise pollution problems and leave behind huge amounts of garbage. In addition, 17.3% of all adolescents have been involved in disputes during these weekend events, 23.2% have been passengers in vehicles driven by some- one under the influence of alcohol, 7.6% have driven ve- hicles while under the influence of alcohol and 7.1% have received injuries requiring medical attention as a result of traffic accidents involving the use of alcohol (Ministerio del Interior, 2001). Several studies (Arellano et al., 1998; Chavez et al., 1994; Crum et al., 1998; Garcia, 1993; Mensch and Kandel, 1988) have reported an increased use of alcohol among young people who have dropped out of school, and the consump- tion of alcoholic beverages has also been found to interfere with school performance (O’Malley et al., 1998; Rachal et al., 1976). Wood et al. (1997) observed a significant corre- lation between academic problems and alcohol involvement. The aim of this study was to characterize the patterns of alcohol consumption by Spanish high school students aged 14 to 19 years, and to determine the relationship between the amount of alcohol consumed and school performance. Method The questionnaire study was done in the city of Granada (in southern Spain). The sample population consisted of a total of 19,521 students, aged 14 to 19 years, who were enrolled in the city’s secondary schools during 1994-95. A random sample of 8 public and 11 private high schools was selected. A random sample of classes was selected from each of the four year-levels. Class year-level was used as the sampling unit (Fuentes-Almendras et al., 1999). The response rate was 95.6% and the final sample size was 1,602 students (861 female; alpha error = 0.05, sam- pling error = 5%). The number of students in each age