College student alcohol abuse prevention: Using social norms within a health communication campaign

The purpose of this study was to compare a theory-based, audience-targeted health communication campaign addressing college student alcohol abuse prevention with traditional campus prevention efforts. More specifically, the campaign intervention, based on the Misperceived Norms Model, attempted to align students\u27 perceived alcohol use norms regarding binge drinking with actual use norms, and thus decrease student binge drinking. The pre-test phase of this study involved the distribution of the survey packet to a total of 600 randomly selected students from three co-ed residence halls. The College Student Alcohol Use survey instrument was adapted with permission from the CORE Alcohol and Drug Survey and the Campus Survey of Alcohol and Other Drug Norms. The instrument contained 33 items assessing student alcohol-related attitudes and behaviors, as well as their perceptions of other students\u27 alcohol-related attitudes and behaviors. The implementation phase involved the design and implementation of a social norms health communication campaign for two experimental groups—the Mass Media-Wellness group and the Mass Media group. The Control group received only traditional campus prevention efforts. The 12 week campaign intervention was based on accurate norm data collected in the pre-test phase. The post-test phase involved the distribution of the survey packet to the original 600 students solicited in the pre-test phase. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, dependent sample t-tests, Bonferoni corrections, ANOVAs, and post-hoc Tukey tests. The apriori alpha level was .05. Fifty students completed both the pre-test survey and the post-test survey, constituting the paired sample. Hypotheses testing was based on data from this sample. Significant differences between self and others with regard to alcohol-related attitudes and behaviors were present in this sample at both pre-test and post-test. There was not, however, an improvement in perceptions of other students\u27 alcohol-related attitudes and behaviors or a decrease in self-reported alcohol use and binge drinking behavior based on exposure to the campaign intervention at post-test. Although the Misperceived Norms Model appears to be a promising approach to reducing college student drinking, more research is needed in its application and effectiveness