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Social Norms Approach in Health Promotion
. The University Health Center and Alcohol & Drug
Education Task Force have utilized the social norms approach,
an environmental strategy, at least since 1999.
. Our most recent social norms campaign involves
baseline data from the National College Health Assessment
(NCHA) conducted at Western Carolina University in Fall 2002.
The Health Center is repeating the NCHA every two years to
evaluate the effectiveness of the social norms campaign and
other programming efforts. The next data collection begins
October 2004.
. The social norms campaign involves the development
and distribution of marketing materials that report positive,
accurate norms of student behavior. Our current marketing plan
includes a billboard, website, and several posters. Follow-up
discussions about these social norms messages are an essential
component of programming efforts conducted by the Wellness
Coordinator, CREW, faculty, and other members of the Wellness
Council and Task Force.
. An increasing body of research supports that the
social norms approach is effective in promoting health and
reducing problem alcohol behavior among college students.
Several private and public colleges and universities report
dramatic reductions in heavy alcohol consumption and related
consequences after implementing social norms projects (Haines,
et al, 2004).
. The theoretical premise of the social norms
approach is summarized in the figure below. Our NCHA data
supports that Western students have strong misperceptions of
normative alcohol use by their peers. In addition,
experiential observations support that members of the local
community also have misperceptions of student alcohol use.
Social norms theory holds that humans tend to conform to
social norms, which in this case supports student high-risk
alcohol behavior. By exposing the campus and surrounding
community to positive, true, actual norms, we hope to correct
misperceptions. We predict that more accurate perceptions will
lead students to conform to the healthy norm and reduce
high-risk alcohol use.
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