Alcohol and Drug Information Centre (ADIC - Ukraine)

"Double morals" as a cultural phenomenon was analyzed by a number of the world famous researchers of the Soviet life. Such type of self-awareness was generated during stagnation, when the loyalty and fidelity to officially declared ideals, the Communist party's policy ceased to be sincere, but was obligatory for everyone, starting from school age. The gap between declared ideas, purposes, values, norms and real behavior became a common phenomenon. This very attitude to moral values is one of the main obstacles on the way to introduce new social technologies into social work in the post-soviet countries. Innovations are not openly rejected, they are just being ignored. Self-governing innovations, values of healthy lifestyle, new technologies of work with the population are perceived by people (both experts, and volunteers or peer leaders) as something imposed from above. A person often shows verbal compliance but acts the opposite way.
This double approach to norms ("norm for myself" and " norms for the others") is especially prominent with people, involved in public health education - teachers, public health workers, social workers. All schoolteachers express concern by teenage consumption of alcohol, tobacco or illegal drugs. At the same time significant percentage of teachers and health workers regularly use alcohol and smoke. Smoking and drinking is legal for adults and they have rights to defend their pro-alcohol or pro-tobacco position. However they prefer to declare anti-alcohol or anti-tobacco position while they do not follow it in real life. In such situation students understand that teachers wish to hear the same declarations from students and do not care about real students' behavior.
According to mini-interviews carried out by the "Center of Social action", 80% of the members of Kiev city youth and teenage clubs, nominated for the "tobacco free club" competition, and participants of a campaign "For healthy lifestyles" in reality smoke and drink alcohol. Such attitude to the healthy lifestyle values is actually encouraged by the clubs leaders. The tobacco free club competition, carried out in Kiev in 2000 by the UNICEF, was won by a club, where 90% of its active members and managers did smoke.
Thus, the double morals in the field of health education is widespread both among the subjects of preventive work (social workers, teachers, leaders of youth clubs and organizations), and target group (youth, schoolchildren). This phenomenon is an important factor of low efficiency of alcohol, tobacco and drug prevention among teenagers and youth. So one of the aims of prevention work development is to overcome the gap between formal knowledge and real behavior.