Skolors elevunderlags betydelse för ungdomars debutålder av cigaretter, alkohol och narkotika

The purpose of this study is to examine whether different student year base intake in Swedish schools have an impact on the pupils age of debut for cigarettes, alcohol and drugs. In the 1990 changes were made erasing the traditional three stages of Swedish school system (low1-3, middle 4-6 and high 7-9). Individual schools were allowed to change their student base resulting in that a lot of schools let pupils in the 6th grade attend class in the same buildings as grade 7-9. The hypothesis of this study is that schools that changed their student base will suffer a decline in the age of debut for cigaretts, alcohol and drugs. By using trend-data from the Stockholm Survey (Stockholmsenkäten) between the years 2002-2012 I examine differences between three types of student base systems. First schools that had pupils in 7-9th grade (13-16) until 2000/2001 and then changed their student base by including 6th grade and becoming grade 6-9 schools. Second, schools that had student base from grade 1-9 (7-16) through the entire period. Third, schools with grade 7-9 through the entire period. The study shows that there is a difference in students habits of tobacco, alcohol and drugs depending on what kind of year base the schools have. The difference is most visible among girls. Girls in schools with grade 6-9 start drinking alcohol at an earlier age than in schools with grade 7-9 or 1-9