In recent years, the use of media campaigns as part of campus strategies to reduce high-risk drinking among college students have been much discussed in the college AOD prevention community. Ad campaigns based on social norms theory have gained currency as one approach to shifting student perceptions and behaviors concerning alcohol use, and results on some campuses has shown promise. However, lasting change also requires the adoption and enforcement of alcohol policies to address environmental factors that may encourage or accomodate heavy drinking. Such policies will be far easier to implement and enforce if developed with student input and support.
This workshop introduces a student-centered approach to reducing destructive drinking on college campuses, by tapping into students' weariness of its effects on their quality of life, and empowering them to act for change. Taking social norms approaches a step further, the HadEnough campaign aims to generate intolerance for heavy drinking behaviors and encourage student involvement and activism on campus alcohol issues. The project seeks to engage students in a campus dialogue on the role of alcohol in college life and build support for practices and policies that reject and discourage the self-destructive, wasteful, and potentially dangerous excessive use of alcohol. Co-presenters from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Cornell University will share lessons from the use of this approach on the UNC and Cornell campuses.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to: 1) Recognize the difference between individual and environmental approaches to the prevention of alcohol abuse. 2) Describe "secondary effects" of binge drinking and how they can be used to "re-position" alcohol issues through social marketing. 3) List five ways for students to take action and get involved in changing the campus drinking culture
Keywords: Alcohol, College Students
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.