Whats there to Celebrate Research on Celebration Drinking Occasions and Initiatives

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Whats there to Celebrate? Research on
Celebration Drinking Occasions and Initiatives

• Dennis Martell, Ph.D.Michigan State University

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• Objectives
• Context and History at MSU
• US Department of Education Grant
• Major Findings- Celebratory
• Social Norms Grant
• Major Findings- Celebratory
• Social Norms Campaigns- Specific Celebratory
  Events
• B.R.A.D. 21st Birthday results.

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Context and History
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Michigan State University Student Population
(Fall 2002) Undergraduate students35,197 Gradua
te students8,349 Professional students1,391 Tot
al enrollment 44,937 MSU is the largest single
campus student body of any Michigan university
and among the largest in the country. Women24,266
Men20,671 17.7 percent, are minorities.
Nearly 88.6 percent of MSU students were from
Michigan. MSU's residence hall system has a
capacity of 17,197 students. Students also may
live in the 2,340 campus apartments.
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MSU History Series of Unfortunate Events

• Gunson Street 1997
• Munn Field 1998
• Action Team formed
• 1999 NCAA
• 2000 NCAA
• 2003 NCAA
• 2005 NCAA Disturbance

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Alcohol Poisoning on 21st Birthday

• Bradley McCue
• MSU Student, Junior
• Fall 1998 Died drinking 24 shots in 2 hours
• Blood alcohol concentration level .44

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Alcohol Related Deaths

• Brandon DAnnunzio
• 2000 Died fatal head injury
• Drinking at local bar

• Eric Blair
• 2001 Drowns
• Drinking at party

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Alcohol Action Team Recommendations

• Community Relations Coalition
• Responsible Hospitality Council
• City involvement in orientation
• Change in off-campus code of conduct
• Social marketing campaign
• Increased late night entertainment on campus
• Research/Campaign celebratory drinking

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Change in Focus on Alcohol Generated by Action
Team Process

• Treat alcohol as a health issue
• Challenge the environment of high-risk drinking
• Reduce harm associated with drinking
• Correct misperceptions
• Concerned about consequences associated with
  drinking

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Clarify Assumptions Approaches to High-Risk
Drinking

• Individual/Groups
• Education
• Harm reduction
• Social Norms marketing to correct
  misperceptions/behavior
• Environmental Management

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U.S. Department of Education Grant 2001-2003
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• Goals
• to explore celebratory behavior patterns and
  factors influencing drinking patterns.
• To evaluate the efficacy of the 21st birthday
  card intervention methodology.
• To develop, implement and evaluate a peer
  prevention media campaign targeting the
  environment of the celebrant.

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Ethnographic Research Design Fall
2001 Objectives         obtain a better
understanding of the celebratory behavior
patterns and factors influencing drinking
patterns,           identification of other
predictable events in which celebration
drinking is likely to occur,          
collection of baseline data regarding
celebration drinking.
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Ethnographic Research Findings Celebratory
Drinking
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DRINKING AND DRUNKENNESS ON CELEBRATORY
OCCASIONS Holiday DRINK ?
DRUNK Occasion PREVAL
RATE Halloween 32
(57) St. Patricks 26
(58) Typical Thursday 19
(48)    DRINK PREVAL Percent of all students
that report drinking DRUNK RATE Proportion of
drinkers who report getting drunk
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DRINKING AND DRUNKENNESS ON CELEBRATORY
OCCASIONS Football DRINK ?
DRUNK Occasion PREVAL
RATE Big Gameday 38
(56) Other Games 37
(50) Typical Saturday 23
(39)    DRINK PREVAL Percent of all students
that report drinking DRUNK RATE Proportion of
drinkers who report getting drunk
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DRINKING AND DRUNKENNESS ON CELEBRATORY
OCCASIONS Weeklong DRINK ?
DRUNK Occasion PREVAL
RATE Spring Break 48
(62) Welcome Week 37 (72) End
of Semester 23 (55) Typical
Week 47 (48)
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Non-Drinking Norm Prevalence 76 End of
Semester 74 St. Patricks 68
Halloween 62 Big Game 60 Welcome Week 52
Spring Break
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Non-Drunkenness Norm Prevalence (Moderately or
not at all) 86 End of Semester 85 St.
Patricks 82 Halloween 79 Big Game 71
Welcome Week 70 Spring Break

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Net Deviation from Expectations  Percent who
drink more than planned minus percent who drink
less than planned   - 2 Typical Thursday /
Friday / Saturday   1 Football gamedays  
6 Holidays (Hween, St Pat)  18 Weeklong
(Spring / Welcome / End)
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66 Reported particular events/ occasions where
they will tend to drink more or get more drunk
than usual.

• Events/occasions
• 19 BIRTHDAYS/BIRTHDAY OF FRIENDS
• 12 PARTIES/HOUSE PARTIES/PARTIES W/FRIENDS
• 11 21st BIRTHDAY. (OWN OR FRIENDS)
• 9 HOLIDAYS HALLOWEEN.ST PATRICKS
• 9 AFTER EXAMS/TESTS/END OF SEMESTER
• 7 FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL GAMES/CHAMPIONSHIPS
• 7 NEW YEARS
• 6 FRIENDS VISITS ON CAMPUS
• 5 TAILGATING/FOOTBALL PARTIES
• 3 SPRING BREAK

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Types of Drinkers   Anytime Drinkers -- 54
  Drink on typical days and special
days   Celebration Drinkers -- 35  
Drink on special days but not typical days  
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Types of Drinkers   Non-Celebration Drinkers
-- 2   Drink on typical days but not
special days   Seldom Drinkers -- 9  
Drinkers who didnt drink on the special or
typical days measured in survey
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What harmful consequences are you most concerned
about?

• 21 DRUNK DRIVING/DRINKING DRIVING
• 18 SEXUAL ASSUALT
• 11 ALCOHOL POISIONING
• 9 GETTING SICK
• 7 GETTING ARRESTED/PROBLEMS WITH POLICE
• 57 report having some type of plan to protect
  themselves from harmful consequences.
• Celebration 2002

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Steps taken to prevent drinking beyond this
point?

• 38 SELF CONTROL/CUT SELF OFF/KNOW LIMITS/STOP
  MYSELF
• 13 FRIENDS WATCH OVER/FRIENDS TELL
  STOP/FRIENDS WATCH
• 10 LIMIT DRINKS/PRESET NUMBER DRINKS/PACE
• 5 DON'T BUY ALOT/DON'T BRING A LOT OF MONEY
  OR DRINKS
• 3 DRINK WATER
• 3 ABSTAIN FROM DRINKING/NO DRINKS
• 3 COUNT DRINKS/KEEP TRACK OF DRINKS
• 2 EAT BEFORE DRINKING
• 20 DO NOT TAKE ANY STEPS
• Celebration 2002

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Important Findings

• People could reduce consequences even when
  consuming larger amounts than normal
• New non-consumptive protective behaviors
  identified

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Media Campaign Messages 2001-2002
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Student Responses Celebration Media
Campaign   Messages 5 campus newspaper ads
3 posters 1
flyer Timing Fall semester 2002 Responses
Telephone survey N500
undergrads (representative)
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Overall campaign   Exposed to one or more
messages 62 IF EXPOSED 63 Recall
slogan "Friends watch out for friends"     Favor
more alcohol messages like these on campus 73
YES
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Targeting the Immediate Social Reality Implementi
ng and Evaluating a Multi-tier Targeted Social
Norm Campaign 2003-2006 __________________________
_______________________ The National Social Norms
Resource Center Funded Anheuser-Busch
Foundation
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• Objectives
• Evaluate the efficacy of constructed social
  norming messages delivered to entire student body
  directed at changing alcohol misuse and
  consequences of known high-risk celebratory
  events ,
• Implement and evaluate the efficacy of
  constructed universal social norming messages
  delivered to entire student body directed at
  changing alcohol misuse and consequences.

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• Findings from the Social Norming
• Study of Student Alcohol Use
• 2003-05

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Change in drinking level through college class
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Perception of various celebrations SALSA
estimates, Fall Celebration Survey data
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Approval estimates of celebration drinking from
SALSA
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Student approval of activities

• Respondents were asked about their approval of
  various activities, and also their estimates as
  to whether most MSU students approve the same
  behavior.
• The following slides show the results as a
  function of level of student drinking

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Drinking twice/week
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Having more than 5 drinks
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Having more than one drink/hour
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Getting wasted
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Celebration drinking
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Results of Note Injunctive Norms

• 77 of MSU students approve of drinking more than
  usual during celebration events.
• 74 of MSU students approve of getting drunk
  during welcome week.
• 73 of MSU students report they approve of
  getting drunk during Halloween.
• Celebrations Surveys 2003-2006

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Celebration Norms CampaignMedia 2004-2006

• Specific campaign addressing drinking
• on special celebratory occasions
• Party Holidays (Halloween, St. Patricks)
• Sports events (Football, Tournament)
• Beginning of school year
• Spring break
• 21st Birthdays

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Celebration Poster Halloween
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St. Patricks Day
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Spring Break
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Spring Break
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Spring Break
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B.R.A.D.21st Birthday Card Field Experiment
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Background on Birthday Card

• Bradley McCue
• MSU Student, Junior
• Fall 1998 Died drinking 24 shots in 2 hours
• Blood alcohol concentration level .44

• Be Responsible About Drinking Foundation founded
• April 1999 21st Birthday Card starts at MSU
• Over 109 other Universities now using
• As of Fall 2006 over 50,000 MSU students have
  received

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Background on Birthday Card

• Over 109 colleges and universities in 31 states
  and the District of Columbia have mailed B.R.A.D.
  birthday cards to their students. Many
  additional schools have adopted a modified
  B.R.A.D. birthday card or have developed their
  own cards based on the concept. Cards are also
  available for individuals through the B.R.A.D.
  web site. Over 210,000 B.R.A.D. birthday cards
  have been distributed through the participating
  schools.

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Dear MSU Parent   Congratulations! Your son or
daughter is about to turn 21. This is
understandably a time of celebration. Most MSU
students who choose to celebrate their birthday
with alcohol are responsible. Unfortunately
celebrations can have tragic consequences.
Twenty-first birthday celebrations have generated
great concern due to 21st birthday drinking
rituals. This is a major health concern because
a large amount of alcohol over a short amount of
time can be lethal.   In November of 1998 Bradley
McCue, our son who was an MSU student, died of
alcohol poisoning on his 21st birthday. Soon
after his death we founded the B.R.A.D. (Be
Responsible About Drinking) Foundation and
cooperation with MSU, began sending out 21st
birthday cards to MSU students encouraging a safe
and responsible celebration on their
birthday.   Your son or daughter will be
receiving one of the B.R.A.D birthday cards in
the next few days. We encourage you to discuss
21st birthday celebration rituals with them.
Please help them understand the dangers of
excessive consumption and encourage them to
celebrate responsibly. Research consistently
shows that students turn to their parents first
for health related information. This is one area
where we can work together to make a difference
in challenging the environment of high risk
drinking!    Thank you for your support,    John
and Cindy McCue B.R.A.D. Foundation
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Survey

• In 2001-2002 1,731 students were surveyed
• Randomly selected
• Conducted within 2 weeks of Birthday
• Telephone survey
• Control Groups
• No card
• Parent letter with card
• Gender insert with card
• Neutral insert with card

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Of 1,731 students surveyed

• 93 celebrated their 21st birthday
• 80 celebrated with alcohol
• 48 got drunk on their birthday
• 11 got sick
• 10 did not recall parts of their celebration

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Card vs No card

• Drank less
• Were less likely to report getting drunk
• Were less likely to do shots
• Were less likely to report parts of their
  celebration they cant remember
• Were more likely to report stopping when had
  enough
• Were more likely to have someone watching out for
  them during the celebration

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Of the students who recalled receiving the cards

• 74 saved part of the card
• 22 reported thinking about the card during the
  celebration
• 12 reported they changed their plans for their
  birthday
• 15 reported learning something new
• 65 shared the card with friends/family
• 98 felt that MSU B.R.A.D. should continue
  sending cards

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V. Questions
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Contact Information

• Dennis Martell PhD
• dennis.martell_at_hc.msu.edu
• 517-432-1031
• 371 Olin Health Center
• Michigan State University
• E. Lansing, MI 48824