A social marketing media campaign, based on a normative social influence model and focused on normative messages regarding binge drinking, on a large, southwestern university campus has yielded positive preliminary results of an overall 29.2 percent decrease in binge drinking rates over a three-year period. The Core Alcohol and Drug Survey and the Health Enhancement Survey provided information on student knowledge, perceptions, and behaviors regarding alcohol and binge drinking. This study represents the first in-depth research on the impact of a media approach, based on a normative social influence model, to reduce binge drinking on a large university campus and has yielded promising initial results.

In 1995, the University of Arizona installed and publicized new policies to provide better alcohol control during its annual homecoming event. Systematic observation at pregame tents revealed that, compared to 1994, these policies led to a lower percentage of tents selling alcohol, elimination of beer kegs, greater availability of food and nonalcoholic beverages, the presence of hired bartenders to serve alcohol, and systems for identification checks. These changes were still in evidence through 1998. In 1995, campus police also saw a downward shift in the number of neighborhood calls for complaints related to homecoming activities, which was maintained through 1998. Statistics on law enforcement actions were inconsistent. There was a sharp drop in 1995, but 1996 and 1998 saw enforcement levels similar to what was seen prior to the new policies. This case study underscores the importance of environmental management strategies for campus-based alcohol and other drug prevention.

The authors sampled more than 600 University of Arizona students to determine how student attitudes, beliefs, and practices should be considered by healthcare personnel in planning campus health education programs. The survey found that students worried more about diet, exercise, and weight than they did about more serious health problems and that, although generally positive and optimistic, the students frequently felt anxious and overwhelmed. Two thirds of the students were sexually active, 74% of those who were active used various contraceptive methods. More than three quarters of those surveyed indicated they currently drank alcoholic beverages; one quarter of the drinkers said they frequently downed three or more drinks on one occasion, and 44% of the drinkers reported driving while under the influence of alcohol.

There is a need to assess whether the resources invested in building trauma competence in services actually lead to higher levels of competence. For this purpose, we have developed an instrument called the Trauma and Development Education Monitor (TANDEM). The present article presents the process behind developing the instrument and an initial study of its psychometric properties. The tested version consisted of 59 items distributed across the domains of readiness, agency, reflexivity, knowledge, practice and culture at work. Based on responses from 415 professionals in relevant services, concept and criterion validity was examined through reliability analyses, factor analyses and regression analyses. Based on the analyses, the tested version was reduced to 54 items in the final version, distributed across the same six domains. As dimensions, the domains generally showed good scale reliability, and for the final version factor analyses confirmed a one-dimensional model for all domains. The instrument discriminated between respondents who reported more versus less previously received trauma competence building and showed specificity as a measure of trauma versus more general competence. The results indicate that TANDEM has the potential to become a useful tool in endeavours to implement trauma competence in services, as well as in research activities in this field.

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