A TriCampus Community Initiative to Reduce High Risk Drinking of Moorhead College Students

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• A Tri-Campus / Community Initiative to Reduce
  High Risk Drinking of Moorhead College Students
• Concordia College
• Minnesota State Community and Technical
  College-Moorhead
• Minnesota State University Moorhead
• Moorhead Police Department
• www.mhdtogether.org

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What?

• U.S. Department of Education's Higher Education
  Center for Alcohol, Other Drug, and Violence
  Prevention funded a grant request.
• Moorhead partners have joined to reduce high risk
  drinking among college students in an important
  student-success project titled "Moorhead
  Together."
• Concordia College, Minnesota State University -
  Moorhead, Minnesota State Community and Technical
  College - Moorhead, and the Moorhead Police
  Department are working together to create a safer
  learning community.
• This is being accomplished through education,
  intervention, policy initiatives and law
  enforcement.

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Learning Objectives

• By the end of this presentation students will be
  able to
• Explain to a friend, co-worker, 1st-year student
  what social norms marketing is
• Accurately describe the norms for alcohol,
  tobacco and other drug use of Concordia students

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Which story will you tell?

• Binge drinking at Nations colleges is
  widespread, a Harvard Study Finds
• Boston Almost half of all students surveyed at
  140 U.S. colleges admitted to binge drinking,
  leading to everything from fights to vandalism
  (Wall Street Journal (12-7-94)

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Which story will you tell?

• Majority of College Students Drink Moderately or
  Not at All, a Harvard Study Finds
• Boston A clear majority of students surveyed at
  140 U.S. colleges reported moderate drinking as
  the campus norm resulting in relatively small
  numbers (only 9) who get hurt or vandalize
  according to (Social Norms Resource Center)

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How do we change health behaviors?
Past approaches have focused on scare tactics,
fear-based messages, legalistic authority,
lecturing/just say no.
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If we can just scare you enough

• Dont messages
• Dont do drugs
• Dont run with that sharp stick
• Dont drink and drive

You will adopt healthy behaviors
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If we just lecture to you enough
Maybe then, youll finally get it!
Then youll change your behavior because you know
better
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If we just threaten you enough
Underage drinking is illegal!
Maybe if you feel guilty enough then youll
change your behavior
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(No Transcript)
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Lets try a different approach
An approach that is positive and involves people
in a partnership to address health behaviors
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Lets learn about social norms marketing?

• Innovative behavior change technique to teach
  people about the healthy behaviors practiced by
  the majority for the purpose of improving health
  and reducing negative consequences
• Does not use scare tactics
• Student centered, but expert driven
• A tool to be used in conjunction with other
  scientifically defensible approaches

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Origination?

• Sociology
• Social Psychology
• Communication Studies
• Advertising and Marketing
• Health Education and Health Promotion

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Social Norms Theory Social Marketing

• Social Norm Theory sociologists theorize that
  peoples perceptions about how members of their
  social group behave will affect their behaviors

• Social Marketing Technique a process for
  influencing human behavior on a large scale,
  using marketing principles for the purpose of
  societal benefit rather than commercial profit.
• (W. Smith, Academy for Educational Development)

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Social Norms

• Social norms uses a variety of methods to
• correct negative misperceptions (usually
  overestimations of use)
• to identify, model, and promote the healthy,
  protective behaviors (actual norms)

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Social Norms Marketing

• objective is behavior change
• messages are positive rather than negative
• research driven, student tested and approved
  messages to sell the protective health behaviors

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Perception and Norm Research

• Research shows that the perceptions of drinking
  norms by college students, whether accurate or
  misperceived, had a strong and predictive
  influence on student drinking behavior (Graham
  et.al., 1991 Prentice Miller, 1993).

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What factors influence perception?
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Why does Social Norms Marketing Work?

• Because people misperceive the prevalence of
  alcohol use, young adults think there is more
  acceptance and use of alcohol and other drugs by
  their peers than is actually the case.
• If the norm is misperceived, behavior will
  reflect the misperception.

• When true norms are perceived, young adults
  realize that by not using they fit in with the
  majority of their peers.

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• In April 2002, when the National Institute on
  Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) issued its
  Task Force Report on College Drinking, the NIAAA
  Panel on Prevention and Treatment noted
• "several institutions that persistently
  communicated accurate norms have experienced
  reductions of up to 20 percent in high-risk
  drinking over a relatively short period of time.
  

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Effectiveness
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Does a misperception exist at Concordia?
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Health is the NORM for Cobbers!

• Most Cobbers (77) drink 2 or FEWER or NO DRINKS
  in an average week.
• (Source 2005 Concordia Health Behavior
  SurveyN369 students)

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Health is the NORM for Cobbers!

• Most Cobbers (96) do NOT use illicit drugs
• Most Cobbers (92) do NOT smoke marijuana
• Most Cobbers (77) do NOT smoke cigarettes

Source 2005 Concordia Health Behavior Survey
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Health is the NORM for Cobbers!

• Most Cobbers (70) use alcohol 1-2 times a month
  or Less or NONE.

Source 2003 Concordia Health Behavior Survey
N436
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Continuum of Interventions

• Unaware/ Aware/ Entrenched/
• Considering Change/ Not considering No desire
  to
• Maintaining Behavior Change Change
• Education Social Marketing Law

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Common Questions

• Does focusing on the positive just minimize the
  problem?
• How about more education and awareness?
• What about people who under-perceive the norms?
• Can survey data be trusted?