INTRODUCTION: The analysis of exam essays on alcohol abuse written by applicants for 17 specific undergraduate majors at Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES) in 1996 was to identify concepts about causes, consequences and intervention proposals to alcohol abuse. METHODS: 2.578 essays (47.7%) were analyzed. From a sample drawn from the essays, an instrument for data organization was developed by constructing categories of causes, consequences and intervention proposals. RESULTS: Applicants showed to believe in the relationship between alcohol and coping with personal problems and the existence of social pressure for alcohol use. Familial and psychological traumatic experience and alcohol dependence were pointed out as the main consequences of alcohol abuse. Proposals to deal with alcohol abuse such as policies for alcohol sale and advertisement of alcoholic beverages as well as mandatory warnings on the danger of alcohol consumption seemed to be the most prominent. CONCLUSIONS: The highlighted concepts found in the all majors applicants' essays were seen in the same proportion and oscillate between a moral/legal and a social/medical understanding of alcohol abuse.
Alcohol abuse; Concepts about alcohol abuse; Young people
