Abstract

The abuse of alcohol beverages is considered a public health problem worldwide. Several researchers have been addressing this problem and one of the best ways to know it is by surveying attitudes. The attitudes toward alcohol use are consistent predictors of alcohol use, but the intended use may mediate these relations. With this goal in question, we sought to test this mediation model: attitudes toward alcohol use → alcohol use’s intention → alcohol use. A total of 220 students participated in the study of public and private high schools of the Federal District, Brazil, equally distributed by gender, with ages ranging from 12 to 42 years, the majority of young people. It is shown correlations between measures of attitudes toward alcohol use, intended use and use and is further corroborated the model of partial mediation. These results are compared with previous research and suggestions in advance to the prediction of alcohol use by the attitudes.