Article

The present study elucidates the association between students ’ education type and alcohol use, controlling for other socio-economic background char-acteristics. A subsample of data from the second International Self-Reported Delinquency Study was used (N = 10,525), collected among adolescents in the seventh to ninth grades of secondary school in four Western European coun-tries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria). Data were analyzed with multilevel logistic regression techniques. There is an indication that type of edu-cation affects prevalence rates of drunkenness and heavy episodic drinking; these effects prove robust for differences in socio-economic backgrounds. The results of this study support the literature regarding the role of the educational system in the reproduction of health inequalities and underscore the finding that stu-dents from education types of lower status are at greater risk than those from higher status types. Keywords alcohol use, heavy episodic drinking, binge drinking, educational stratification, tracking, socio-economic difference