Mailshot triggers reduced drinking among concerned problem drinkers

30 January, 2008 in research
Tags: normative messages

Drug and Alcohol Findings has an interesting article on the use of normative messages to the general public in Canada.

More widely the piece points out:

Approaches based on correcting normative beliefs have been found effective in previous research, but with selected targets and incorporated in a less minimal intervention. Correcting these beliefs has been shown to be an effective and important component of drug prevention programmes in schools with sometimes greater impact than teaching children how to refuse drug offers. The importance of social norms is also apparent in several recent studies which found that common and accepted patterns of drug use are resistant to prevention programmes, perhaps because their impact is ‘swamped’ by social and peer group norms, but that less accepted (and usually more serious) patterns of use can be affected.

More relevant to the current study are media campaigns mounted by US colleges to tackle excessive drinking among students. Some based on correcting norms about how much most students drink have reported positive results, though studies were compromised by non-random selection procedures or non-response and not all interventions have led to positive outcomes, even when the study has confirmed a link between normative beliefs and drinking. Despite sometimes successfully changing beliefs about how much students drink, educational classes based on the same approach have reported mixed results. College students have also responded well to norm-based brief personal counselling20 or mailed feedback aimed at individual heavy drinkers. In one such study a reduced estimate of how much the typical student drank accounted for the reductions in drinking following brief motivational counselling.

I thought it would be helpful to reproduce the footnotes for these paragraphs:

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8. Hansen W.B., et al. “Preventing alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette use among adolescents: Peer pressure resistance training versus establishing conservative norms.” Preventive Medicine: 1991, 20.
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13. Stevens M.M., et al. “Three-year results of prevention programs on marijuana use: the New Hampshire study.” Journal of Drug Education: 1996, 26(3), p. 157-273.
14. Mann R.E., et al. “Can school alcohol education programmes contribute to declines in drinking among students?” Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy: 1997, 4(2).
15. Glider P., et al. “Challenging the collegiate rite of passage: a campus-wide social marketing media campaign to reduce binge drinking.” Journal of Drug Education: 2001, 31(2) p. 207-220. 
16. Haines M., et al. “Changing the perception of the norm: a strategy to decrease binge drinking among college students.” Journal of American College Health: 1996, 45, 134-140.
17. Gomberg L., et al. “Evaluation of a social norms marketing campaign to reduce high-risk drinking at the University of Mississippi.” American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse: 2001, 27(2), p. 375-389.
18. Steffian G. “Correction of normative misperceptions: an alcohol abuse prevention program.” Journal of Drug Education: 1999, 9(2), p. 115-138.
19. Peeler C., et al. “An analysis of the effects of a program to reduce heavy drinking among college students.” Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education: 2000, 45(2), p. 39-54.
20. Borsari B., et al. “Effects of a brief motivational intervention with college student drinkers.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology: 2000, 68(4), p. 728-733.
21. Agostinelli G., et al. “Effects of normative feedback on consumption among heavy drinking college students.”Journal of Drug Education: 1995, 25(1), p. 31-40.
22. Walters S.T., et al. “Reducing alcohol use in college students: a controlled trial of two brief interventions.” Journal of Drug Education: 2000, 30(3), p 361-372.
23. Walters S.T., et al. “Drinking on campus. What do we know about reducing alcohol use among college students?” Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment: 2000, 19, p. 223-228.
24. Borsari B., et al. “Effects of a brief motivational intervention with college student drinkers.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology: 2000, 68(4), p. 728-733.