The ESPAD project: history and assumptions. Introduction to series of papers from the ESPAD study 1995-2015. Poland against the background of Europe

The ESPAD (European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs) study is carried out in a changing number of European countries every four years since 1995. In 1995, 22 countries participated in the survey and 34 in 2015. Poland participated in all six ESPAD editions. The aim of ESPAD is to target the use of psychoactive substances by schoolchildren, and recently also risk behaviours from the areas of new technologies and gambling. The results are intended to provide data for designing and evaluating policy towards psychoactive substances and what is broadly understood as prevention addressed to youth. The studied population are 15-16 year-old students (at the time of the study). Random-clustered sampling is applied, where clusters are school classes. The recommended sample size is 2400 students, which ensures separate representativity for boys and girls. The study has been realised using a classroom self-administrated questionnaire. Great attention was paid to providing students a sense of security and anonymity. Despite the efforts to ensure full comparability of ESPAD results both between countries and over time, this comparability is still limited.