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The 2004 National Social Norms Conference: An
Overview
(pdf
version)
The 2004 National Social Norms Conference, which took place July 21-23
in Chicago, provided a wide array of presentations of benefit to practitioners,
administrators, and stakeholders at high schools, colleges and universities,
and community-based health agencies. The optional, pre-conference seminar,
conducted by H. Wesley Perkins and Michael Haines, was the largest ever
held, with nearly one hundred participants. This intensive seminar is
designed specifically for those conference attendees who are relatively
new to the social norms approach and who wish to gain a solid understanding
of the underlying theory and its application to the field of health
promotion.
With nearly thirty
sessions, this year's conference was both large and extremely varied.
A number of sessions were devoted to various aspects of project implementation,
such as the use and analysis of focus group research, message and media
development, market testing, and the collection and analysis of quantitative
data. Given the large number of sessions and the wide range of material
covered, this overview will be limited to a description of a number
of key findings presented at the conference.
1.
"Reducing Misperceptions of College Student Drinking Norms Lowers
Risk: Results of a Nationwide Evaluation of Alcohol Abuse Prevention
Efforts"
Presenters:
H. Wesley Perkins,
Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Perkins@hws.edu
Michael P. Haines,
M.S., Director, National Social Norms Resource Center
Mhaines@niu.edu
Description
of Study
Research conducted over the past two decades has consistently identified
a wide range of negative consequences affecting a sizeable minority
of college student drinkers, including various injuries to self, injuries
to others, and institutional costs. Given the seriousness of the issue
and the wide array of prevention initiatives currently available, it
is critically important that colleges and universities be able to identify
the correlates of alcohol abuse prevention programs that are actually
effective in reducing alcohol-related harm. This session reported results
of the largest nationwide study to date (data collected from 76,145
students attending 130 colleges and universities
throughout the United States in the National College Health Assessment
Survey between 2000 and 2003) assessing the extent of misperception
among students about their peer drinking norms and the effectiveness
of reducing these misperceptions in preventing alcohol abuse. Four critical
questions were examined in this study:
- How prevalent
are the misperceptions of college student drinking norms across campuses
nationwide?
- How important
are perceived norms in predicting high-risk drinking behavior?
- What impact does
exposure to alcohol education information in general have on the perception
of campus drinking norms?
- Do schools where
alcohol education is associated with less misperception have less
personal alcohol abuse among their students?
Results
- 71% of college
students nationwide over-estimate the level of alcohol
consumption among their peers. No matter what the individual campus
norm for drinking—be it low, moderate, or relatively high—a
consistently large percentage of students erroneously believe the
norm is to drink more than what is really being consumed by the majority
of students.
- Students’
perceptions of the drinking norm on their campus
was the strongest predictor of the amount of alcohol personally consumed
in comparison with the influence of all other demographic characteristics
that commonly predict personal drinking levels.
- A student’s
perception of the norm is much more influential in
determining his or her drinking behavior than is the amount actually
being consumed by most other peers on campus.
- At over 90 percent
of schools prevention program information is not associated with reducing
misperceptions. Many programs actually inflate misperceptions.
- At schools where
misperceptions of peer norms are lowered by exposure to prevention
information, high risk drinking behavior and negative consequences
are reduced by as much as one-third in comparison to schools
where programs have no impact on or actually inflate misperceptions
of the norms.
2.
"Using Social Norms to Promote Health among College Student Athletes:
Results from the HWS Most Valuable Players Project and the NCAA STARR
Project"
Presenters:
H. Wesley Perkins,
Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Perkins@hws.edu
Sarah Dufresne,
Assistant Director of Education Outreach, National Collegiate Athletic
Association
Summary
of Presentation
Although previous research has revealed higher rates of health risk
behaviors among intercollegiate student athletes compare to other undergraduates,
student athletes also hold exaggerated perceptions of the norms for
student athlete alcohol and tobacco use much as these norms are misperceived
in student populations in general. In 2001 two projects were launched
as social norms interventions to test the possibility of reducing these
misperceptions and promoting health among student athletes at Division
II schools. The Most Valuable Players Project (MVP) developed at Hobart
and William Smith Colleges (HWS), supported by a grant from the U.S.
Department of Education, designed an intensive social norms intervention
for student athletes modeled after the highly successful social norms
intervention previously developed at HWS for students in general.
The MVP project
included: 1) An anonymous web-based survey about personal attitudes,
behaviors, and perceived peer norms that was conducted among student
athletes at HWS, and 2) Print, electronic, and peer communication strategies
promoting accurate positive norms to reduce destructive misperceptions
(see http://alcohol.hws.edu/mvp
). Adopting the HWS MVP model, The STARR MVP Project was implemented
by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at five Division III
schools throughout the Northeast and Midwest with annual data collection
between 2001-2003.
Results are based
on 1,1400 student athlete survey respondents in the HWS MVP Project
and 3,487 respondents in the five-school STARR MVP Project.
Highlights of the
results from the pre (fall 2001) and post (fall 2002/2003) comparison
include:
HWS MVP Project:
- 46% reduction
in the proportion of student athletes drinking more than once peer
week;
- 30% reduction
in the proportion of student athletes reaching a BAC of .08 or greater
when drinking at parties or bars;
- 34% reduction
in the proportion of student athletes experiencing frequent negative
consequences due to drinking during the academic term;
- 38% reduction
in the proportion of student athletes using tobacco weekly;
- A 2.5 hours per
week increase in time spent in academic activities, on average, for
each student athlete.
STARR MVP Project
replication at five other NCAA Division III schools
- 18% reduction
in the proportion of student athletes drinking more than once per
week;
- A reduction of
almost 2 drinks, on average, for each student athlete per two week
period;
- 25% reduction
in the proportion of student athletes experiencing frequent negative
consequences due to drinking during the academic term;
- 31% reduction
in the proportion of student athletes using tobacco weekly;
- A one-hour per
week increase in time spent in academic activities, on average, for
each student athlete.
3.
"An Integrated Approach to Reduce High-Risk Drinking at Florida
State University"
Presenters:
Rick Howell, B.S.,
Project Manager, Florida Center for Prevention Research
Dina Wilke, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Florida State University School
of Social Work
Michael P. Smith, B.S., M.P.A., Director, Florida Center for Prevention
Research
Program
Description
This presentation examined the impact of a three-year integrated approach
to high-risk drinking at Florida State University (FSU), a large public
institution with 37,000 students. FSU's determination is to change perceptions
that drive behavior by revealing a more balanced picture of student
life. Baseline data from the National College Health Assessment Survey
(NCHA) revealed that 49.4% of students surveyed reported having four
of fewer drinks the last time they partied/socialized; however, their
perception was that only 24.7% of their peers were drinking a similar
amount. In addition, 17.3% reported abstaining from drinking, while
they perceived that only 1% of their peers were abstaining.
Primary Normative Messages have included: “Celebrating the University’s
Strengths,” “Typical Student,” and “Skeptical
Bubble,” a concept borrowed from Dr. Linda Hancock of Virginia
Commonwealth University.
Primary Marketing
Methods have been: Print Media: 1/2 page four-color and B/W ads in school
newspaper, 18 –1/2 x 11 four-color bus cards on campus buses and
for use as posters at authorized posting locations around campus, 8x10
four-color prints of ads for distribution in freshman residence halls;
Electronic Media: Backgrounds and screen savers on computer in campus
computer labs; and billboards at locations around campus with high student
traffic.
Project
Results (Comparison of 2002-2004 NCHA Data)
Since 2002, high-risk
drinking at FSU has declined 13.8 percent overall, with a 15 percent
reduction among male students and a 5 percent reduction among female
students. In addition, there has been a 21 percent increase in the number
of students that reported abstaining from drinking.
4. “MOST of Us Prevent Drinking and Driving: A Successful
Social Norms Campaign to Reduce Impaired Driving among Young Adults
in Western Montana”
Presenters:
Jeff Linkenbach,
Ed.D., Director of the Montana Social Norms Project
jwl@montana.edu
H. Wesley Perkins, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Hobart and William
Smith Colleges perkins@hws.edu
Summary of Presentation
The MOST of Us Prevent
Drinking and Driving Campaign is the first demonstration of the potential
of applying social norms theory to the problem of impaired driving in
a large statewide population. This controlled social norms intervention
was designed to reduce risky impaired driving behavior among Montana’s
young adults aged 21-34. An initial campaign survey found that while
only 20% of Montana young adults had driven within one hour of consuming
two or more drinks in the previous month, 92% of respondents perceived
that the majority of their peers had done so. Such a disparity between
perception and behavior is precisely what social norms theory predicts,
and by correcting this misperception, the MOST of Us Prevent Drinking
and Driving Campaign was able to reduce the prevalence of impaired driving
in its target population.
With funding from
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Montana
Department of Transportation (MDT), a 15-month media campaign was carried
out in a 15-county intervention area in the western portion of Montana.
This intervention area is home to half of the state’s 21-34 year
old population. This quasi-experimental intervention exposed the selected
counties to high doses of the social norms message, and then compared
the resulting changes in perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors with
the eastern Montana counties that served as the control group. The treatment
counties were dosed with high-intensity paid social norms radio and
television commercials, theater slides, posters, billboards, local and
college newspaper advertisements, and promotional items bearing social
norms messages. Most of this media communicated the normative message
that, “MOST Montana Young Adults (4 out of 5) Don’t
Drink and Drive.” Additional messages focused on the
use of designated drivers and other protective factors, and some were
tailored to particular markets with county-specific statistics. A control
area in the eastern half of the state was exposed to low levels of free
social norms media, local and college newspaper advertisements, and
promotional items as well as the fear-based messages commonly produced
by other sources. Specific controls were instigated to eliminate or
severely restrict the use of fear-based media efforts in the treatment
counties.
A baseline and three
follow-up statewide surveys were conducted at various points before,
during, and after the campaign with a total of over 3,500 respondents.
Analysis of this self-report data showed unequivocally that the high-intensity
social norms campaign improved the accuracy of the target audience’s
perceived norms and increased their healthy, preventative attitudes
and behaviors regarding impaired driving. Compared to data from the
control counties, statistically significant results among young adults
in the targeted counties showed:
- An 8% relative
decrease in the percentage who believed that the average Montanan
their age drove after drinking during the previous month;
- An 11% relative
increase in the percentage who accurately perceived that the majority
of their peers use a non-drinking designated driver;
- A 14% relative
decrease in the percentage who reported personally driving after drinking;
- A 15% relative
increase in the percentage always using non-drinking designated drivers;
- A 17% relative
increase in the percentage who supported passing a law to decrease
the Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) legal limit for driving to .08%.
By the end of the
campaign, young adults in the intervention counties were seeing the
normative environment more accurately in comparison to their counterparts
in the control counties. The reduction of their misperceptions about
the pervasiveness of impaired driving among their peers led to positive
changes in their personal attitudes and to a reduction in risky behaviors.
In contrast, young adults residing in the control counties who were
exposed to the traditional fear-based messages reported increased risks
associated with impaired driving.
This research provides
practical implications for traffic safety programmers, challenges widely-held
assumptions about the efficacy of fear-based media, and signals the
need for future research on the behavior-changing potential of promoting
positive norms.
5. "A Community-Based Social Norms Campaign to Promote
Positive Parenting Practices"
Presenters:
William Bacon, Ph.D.,
Associate VP for Research and Evaluation
Michele Bayley, MPH, Director of Community Initiatives
Planned Parenthood of New York City
Program
Description
Planned Parenthood of New York City has recently launched a community
campaign targeting parents of teens aged 11-17. The campaign is intended
to complement youth-focused programming designed to help young people
avoid sexual risk-taking, including early intercourse. The parent campaign
takes a social norms approach to promoting positive parenting practices.
An extensive community-based planning process was followed by focus
groups with parents in the target community in order to identify specific
practices that parents were using to help protect their teens from sexual
risk-taking. This information then formed the basis of a parent survey,
which was conducted with a randomly selected sample of parents in order
to determine actual and perceived norms for each of the identified parenting
practices. The survey identified large and pervasive misperceptions
of parenting-related norms.
Baseline
Survey Findings
- Perceived: 20%
of parents always meet their teen's closest friends
- Actual: 65% of
parents always meet their teen's closest friends
- Perceived: 25%
of parents never allow their teen to go to parties at homes where
they know there won't be any parents
- Actual: 78% of
parents never allow their teens to go to parties at homes where there
won't be any parents
- Perceived: 33%
of parents always talk to their teen about the dangers of sexually
transmitted diseases
- Actual: 80% of
parents always talk to their teens about the dangers of sexually transmitted
diseases
- Perceived: 30%
of parents always talk to their teens about what might happen if she
got/he got someone pregnant
- Actual: 70% of
parents always talk with their teen about what might happen if she
got pregnant/he got someone pregnant
- Perceived: 37%
of parents always praise their teen when he or she makes good choices
- Actual: 87% of
parents always praise their teen when he or she makes good choices
- Perceived: 37%
of parents always tell their teen how much they care about him or
her
- Actual: 90% of
parents always tell their teen how much they care about him or her
The misperceptions
found as a result of this survey informed the development of a social
norms marketing campaign directed at the community. Follow-up data is
planned for fall 2004.
6. "Male College Students' Willingness to Prevent Rape:
The Impact of Personal Attitudes, Referent Group Norms, and Peer Educators"
Presenters:
Jerold L. Stein,
Ed.D. Dean of Students, Stony Brook University
Jeffrey A. Barnett, Academic Advisor, Stony Brook University
Program
Description
This session was devoted to a discussion of the predictors of male college
students' willingness to prevent rape in the context of social norms
and peer influence theories. It included an overview of the theoretical
and conceptual socio-cultural models of human behavior reported by Dewey
(1916), Astin (1993), Perkins and Berkowitz (1986) and Gladwell (2000)
in the context of rape prevention programming. Results were reported
of a research study on a college campus examining factors (actual norms;
referent group norms; and exposure to peer educators) that contribute
to male college students' Willingness to Prevent Rape (WPR). The researchers
also examined the difference between actual and the perceptions of referent
group norms.
Findings
Consistent with findings of other research studies and through data
analysis, seven themes emerged from this study:
- The potent influence
of the peer group and other socio-cultural variables
- That most men
are uncomfortable with rap supportive attitudes and behaviors
- That may men
underestimate their peers' willingness to prevent rape and their disapproval
of rape supportive myths
- That most men
believe that men need to play a role in rape prevention and are willing
to prevent rape
- Men's willingness
to prevent rape is consistent with masculine ideals, e.g., being "protective"
- How men define
rape may be a critical factor in men's willingness to prevent rape
- Ethnic differences
are evident
Ancillary
findings
- 71% of the men
said that men and women need to share equally the responsibility for
preventing rape
- Nearly 86% of
the men indicated that either men alone or women and men need to share
equally the responsibility for preventing rape
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