Articles by Year - 2003 and prior
2003
Brener, N.D., Billy, J.O., Grady, W.R. (2003). "Assessment of Factors Affecting the Validity of Self-Reported Health-Risk Behavior among Adolescents: Evidence from the Scientific Literature." Journal of Adolescent Health, 33:436-457. go to summary
Kypros K. and Langely, J.D. (2003). "Perceived Social Norms
and Their Relation to University Student Drinking," Journal of
Studies on Alcohol, 829-834. go to summary
Latkin, C.A., Forman, V., Knowlton, A., Sherman, S. (2003). "Norms, Social Networks, and HIV-Related Risk Behaviors among Urban Disadvantaged Drug Users." Social Science and Medicine, 56(3):465-476.
go to summary
Perkins, H. Wesley, Editor (2003). The Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Age Substance Abuse: A Handbook for Educators, Counselors, and Clinicians. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. go to summary
Peters, R.J., Kelder, S.H., Markham, C.M., Yacoubian, G.S., Peters, L.A., Ellis, A. (2003). "Beliefs and Social Norms about Codeine and Promethazine Hydrochloride Cough Syrup (CPHCS) Onset and Perceived Addiction among Urban Houstonian Adolescents: an Addiction Trend in the City of Lean." Journal of Drug Education, 33(4): 415-425. go to summary
2002
Wagenaar, Alexander C. and Toomey, Traci L. (2002). Effects of Minimum Drinking Age Laws: Review and Analyses of the Literature from 1960 to 2000. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Supplement 14, 206-225. go to summary
2001
Cunningham, J.A., Wild, T.C., Bondy, S.J., Lin, E. (2001). "Impact of Normative Feedback on Problem Drinkers: A Small-Area Population Study".
Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 62, 2, 228-233.
go to summary
2000
Aminzadeh, F., Edwards, N. (2000). "Factors Associated with Cane Use among Community Dwelling Older Adults." Public Health Nursing, 17(6):474-483. go to summary
1999
Mandell, W., Kim J., Latkin C.,Suh, T. (1999). "Do Actions Speak Louder than Words: Perceived Peer influence on Needle-Sharing and Cleaning in a Sample of Injection Drug Users." AIDS Education and Prevention. 11(2):122-131. go to summary
2003
Brener, N.D., Billy, J.O., Grady, W.R. (2003). "Assessment of Factors Affecting the Validity of Self-Reported Health-Risk Behavior among Adolescents: Evidence from the Scientific Literature." Journal of Adolescent Health, 33:436-457. return to list
Abstract:
We reviewed the existing empirical literature to assess cognitive and situational factors that may affect the validity of adolescents' self-reports of alcohol and other drug use, tobacco use, behaviors related to unintentional injuries and violence, dietary behaviors, physical activity, and sexual behavior. Specifically, we searched for peer-reviewed journal articles published in 1980 or later that examined the factors affecting self-report of the six categories of behavior listed above. We also search for studies describing objective measures for each behavior. Self-reports of each of six types of health-risk behaviors are affected by both cognitive and situational factors.These factors, however, do not threaten the validity of each type of behavior equally. The importance of assessing health-risk behaviors as part of research activities involving adolescents necessitates the use of self-report measures. Researchers should familiarize themselves with the threats to validity inherent in this type of assessment and design research that minimizes these threats as much as possible.
Kypros K. and Langely, J.D. (2003). "Perceived Social Norms
and Their Relation to University Student Drinking," Journal of
Studies on Alcohol, pp. 829-834. return to list
A 2002 study of a randomly selected representative sample of 1,564
New Zealand university students found strong evidence of norm misperceptions,
and that perceived norms were strongly related to individual drinking
levels.
Latkin, C.A., Forman, V., Knowlton, A., Sherman, S. (2003). "Norms, Social Networks, and HIV-Related Risk Behaviors among Urban Disadvantaged Drug Users." Social Science and Medicine, 56(3):465-476. return to list
Abstract:
Altering norms may be an important approach to introducing and sustaining health protective behavior change. This study sought to examine the relationship between condom use, condom norms, and social network characteristics among a sample of economically impoverished individuals at risk for acquiring and transmitting HIV. Participants were 1051 individuals from a drug-using community in the USA. Eighty percent were current drug users; 17% were HIV seropositive. Reported condom use was strongly associated with peer norms about condom use (friends talking about condoms, encouraging condom use, and using condoms). Women were less likely than men to report that their friends used condoms. Injection drug use was negatively associated with peer norms about condom use, while church attendance and network characteristics were positively associated with condom-promoting norms. The size of the health advice and the financial support networks was most positively related to condom norms. Network methodology may aid in the identification of specific ties that promote condom use norms in a population. The findings of this study may have implications for norm change interventions among disadvantaged communities at high risk for HIV/AIDS.
Perkins, H. Wesley, Editor (2003) The Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Age Substance Abuse: A Handbook for Educators, Counselors, and Clinicians. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. return to list
An essential resource book of evidence supporting the social norms strategy and a user-friendly exposition of how model interventions have been conducted. Contents include numerous case studies of campus experiments to reduce alcohol abuse, expanding social norms to other campus applications (such as tobacco use), and using the social norms approach with adolescents and young adults in community settings. Information about this volume is available on the Jossey-Bass web site: http://www.josseybass.com/cda/product/0,,078796459X|desc|2548,00.html
The contents of this page include a description of this 336-page volume, the table of contents, an extended excerpt from the book available in PDF format, and ordering information.
Peters, R.J., Kelder, S.H., Markham, C.M., Yacoubian, G.S., Peters, L.A., Ellis, A. (2003). "Beliefs and Social Norms about Codeine and Promethazine Hydrochloride Cough Syrup (CPHCS) Onset and Perceived Addiction among Urban Houstonian Adolescents: an Addiction Trend in the City of Lean." Journal of Drug Education, 33(4): 415-425. return to list
Abstract:
In the current study, we used a qualitative approach to investigate relevant beliefs and norms associated with codeine and promethazine hydrochloride cough syrup (CPHCS) consumption, initiation, and perceived addiction among 48 alternative school students who identified themselves as current CPHCS users. In general, both boys and girls believed the CPHCS addiction started during an individual's initial consumption. A majority of both groups reported that their second CPHCS event was initiated during the same or next day after their first event. Our findings suggest that friends and an innovative form of hip-hop music called "screw" are strong reinforcers of CPHCS use.
2002
Wagenaar, Alexander C. and Toomey, Traci L. (2002). Effects of Minimum Drinking Age Laws: Review and Analyses of the Literature from 1960 to 2000. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Supplement 14, 206-225. return to list
Objective:
There has long been a debate regarding the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) and whether it is really effective in reducing alcohol-related problems. This study critically reviewed and summarized all studies available in peer-reviewed published literature over the past four decades that evaluated the effects of public policies establishing a legal minimum age for purchase and/or consumption of alcoholic beverages.
Method:
The authors conducted comprehensive searchers of four databases to identify 132 empirical studies of the MLDA published from 1960 to 1999. The selected databases included MEDLINE (1966-1999), Current Contents (1994-1999), Social Science Abstracts (1983-1999), and ETOH- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s alcohol and alcohol problems science database (1960-1999). The authors looked for sampling design, study design, and presence or absence or comparison group to determine methodological quality.
Results:
The authors identified 241 empirical analyses of the MLDA; 56% of the analyses met the authors’ criteria for high methodological quality. There were 48 published studies that assessed the effects of changes in the legal minimum drinking age on indicators of alcohol consumption. Of the 78 different alcohol consumption outcome measures that were analyzed, 27 (35%) found a statistically significant inverse relationship between the legal drinking age and alcohol consumption. That is, as the legal age was lowered, drinking increased, and as the legal age was raised, drinking decreased. Only five found a positive relationship. Of all analyses that reported significant effects, 87% found higher drinking ages associated with lower alcohol consumption; only 13% found the opposite. Almost ½ (46%) found no association between the legal age and indicators of alcohol consumption.
There were 57 published studies that assessed the effects of changes in the legal minimum drinking age on indicators of driving after drinking and traffic crashes. In the 57 studies, a total of 102 crash outcome measures were analyzed. Of the 102 analyses, 52 (51%) found a statistically significant inverse relationship between the legal drinking age and crashes, two found a positive relationship between legal drinking age and traffic crashes, and 12 analyses found an inverse relationship, but did not report significance levels. More than half of all analyses found that as the legal age was lowered, the number of crashes increased, and as the legal age was raised, the number of crashes decreased.
The authors also identified 24 published studies that assessed the effects of changes in the legal minimum drinking age on indicators of other health and social problem outcomes (such as suicide, homicide, or vandalism). Of the 24 studies, 61 outcome measures were analyzed. Of the 61 analyses, ten (16%) found a statistically significant inverse relationship and four found a positive relationship. In addition, there were two inverse relationship and one positive relationship studies that did not report significance levels. Of all the analyses that reported significant effects, 75% found that higher drinking ages were associated with lower rates of problems; 25% found the opposite. A full 72% of the analyses found no association between the legal age and indicators of other problems.
Conclusions:
The evidence suggests that there is statistically significant inverse relationship between the MLDA and alcohol consumption, traffic crashes, and alcohol-related problems (48% of higher quality studies. Only a small number of studies found a statistically significant, positive relationship between the MLDA and various outcomes (1% of higher quality studies). A large number of studies found no statistically significant relationship.
Implications for the Field:
In addition to a review of the literature on minimum legal drinking age studies, this study also summarized 13 issues that are raised in policy debates by those opposed to a legal drinking age of 21 and provides responses.
2001
Cunningham, J.A., Wild, T.C., Bondy, S.J., Lin, E. (2001). "Impact of Normative Feedback on Problem Drinkers: A Small-Area Population Study". Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 62, 2, 228-233. return to list
Objective:
This study was conducted to evaluate the impact of a self-test pamphlet that provided readers with normative feedback about their drinking. The study also evaluated a methodology in which random assignment to a brief mail intervention or control group was embedded in a general population survey.
Method:
An intervention pamphlet was mailed to over 6000 households in Toronto, Canada, randomized by block. The Evaluate Your Drinking self-test pamphlet encouraged the reader to evaluate his or her own drinking, record their drinking for a typical week, and then use this information to calculate the number of drinks usually consumed per week. The reader was provided with normative information and was encouraged to compare his or her personal drinking to that of other Canadians. A graph was also presented in the pamphlet on the likelihood of adverse effects associated with different levels of consumption. The researchers assumed that heavy drinkers who read the pamphlet would be motivated to reduce their drinking by comparing their drinking amounts to the normative data. The pamphlet concluded with a menu of options for readers who were concerned about their drinking and wanted to take the next step toward changing their drinking behavior. In the month after the mailing, a general population post mailing survey was conducted in the region to obtain information about the drinking behavior of household members in the local areas and assess alcohol use. The researchers performed a random digit dialing telephone survey of adults for the entire region using a two-stage random sampling procedure. The telephone survey, which had a 50% effective response rate, contained the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), which assessed alcohol dependence, the quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption in the last year, and consequences associated with consumption. The scale was chosen to help distinguish between social and heavy drinkers.
Results:
Study variables were assessed using a hierarchical regression analysis. Main-effect analyses show that there was no overall effect of intervention condition on weekly drinking. Respondents from households receiving normative feedback (n=472) reported significantly lower alcohol use than controls (n=225), but this effect occurred only among respondents who met an objective criterion for problem drinking and who perceived some risk associated with their drinking. Among respondents who did not perceive themselves to be at risk for alcohol-related harm, post hoc pairwise t tests revealed that those who received the intervention drank significantly more than those who did not receive the intervention. Among respondents who did perceive themselves to be at risk for alcohol-related harm, those who received the intervention reported significantly less alcohol consumption than those who did not receive the intervention. In addition, there was a significant interaction between perceived risk and problem-drinking status. For non-problem drinkers, those who perceived some risk associated with their drinking reported significantly more alcohol consumption compared with those who perceived no risk.
Conclusions:
The authors believe that normative feedback interventions can be successful because they can be provided at low cost and to problem drinkers who might ordinarily never access any treatment services. In this study, the pamphlet intervention resulted in a significant reduction in alcohol use among problem drinkers who perceived themselves at risk for their alcohol consumption. One unexpected result, however, was that among drinkers who perceived no risk associated with their drinking, those who received the intervention actually drank more than those who did not. The authors state that normative feedback interventions may act to polarize problem drinkers such that individuals who perceive some risk reduce their drinking in response to normative feedback and those who perceive no risk might react to the pamphlet by drinking more. The authors hypothesize that this finding may be a result of the “boomerang” effect observed by Nye et al (1999) in which those who perceive themselves at no risk engage in defensive processing of normative information. This self-denial may result in a tendency to drink more, at least in the short term.
Implications for the Field:
The authors believe that brief interventions that employ a normative feedback approach to reducing risky alcohol use may prove useful within a general population context. The material can be constructed so that it is relevant to all drinkers, irrespective of their level of consumption, and can indicate that a person’s drinking is normative without making any statements that such drinking should be modified. For heavy drinkers, the normative feedback can alert readers in a nonjudgmental fashion that they are drinking more than the norm. This could be important information because many heavy drinkers “normalize’ their behavior by overestimating the prevalence of heavy alcohol use (Agostinelli et al., 1995). A list of options can then be presented that would allow heavy drinkers to choose to take action that could bring their alcohol consumption in line with social norms.
2000
Aminzadeh, F., Edwards, N. (2000). "Factors Associated with Cane Use among Community Dwelling Older Adults." Public Health Nursing, 17(6):474-483. return to list
Abstract:
Guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), this study examined factors associated with cane use among community dwelling older adults. Data were collected in a cross-sectional survey of a convenience sample of 106 community residing older adults in Ottawa, Canada. Using stepwise discriminant analysis, subjective norms, attitudes, and age surfaced as the key variables associated with cane use in this sample. The discriminant function accounted for 67% of the variance in cane use and correctly classified 91% of cases. The findings provide evidence for the utility of the TPB in its application to understanding cane use behaviors of older persons and have important implications for the design of theory-based fall prevention interventions to enhance the acceptance and effective use of mobility aids.
1999
Mandell, M.,Kim, J., Latkin C., Suh, T. (1999). "Do Actions Speak Louder than Words: Perceived Peer Influence on Needle-Sharing and Cleaning in a Sample of Injection Drug Users." AIDS Education and Prevention. 11(2):122-131. return to list
Abstract:
Past research (Dielman, Burchart, Shope, and Miller, 1980) has found peer influence, perceived peer norms and perceived peer behavior as the strongest predictors of drug use in adolescent and young adult populations. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether verbal persuasion (peer norms) and/or observation of peer behavior (modeling) were significantly associated with the injection practices of unclean needle sharing and needle cleaning of 642 high-risk for HIV infection active injection drug users in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1991 and 1992. Using regression analyses to examine interview reports of infection practices, it was determined that subjects who reported observing more peer protective HIV-related behavior were also more likely to report lower frequencies of HIV risk behavior (unclean needle sharing) and increased frequencies of HIV protective behavior (always cleaning needles). Reports of "encouragement by peers to engage in cleaning needles" was paradoxically related to increased risk of sharing clean needles. In conclusion, peer behavior rather than verbal persuasion appears to influence injection practices.