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A reduction in college students' binge drinking associated with an intervention to change perceptions of drinking norms is described. The 5-year study was conducted at a public residential campus of 23,000 students. A traditional intervention proved unsuccessful, but a media campaign designed to change student perceptions of the amount of binge drinking showed an 18.5% drop in the number of students who perceived binge drinking as the norm (from 69.7% to 51.2%) and a corresponding reduction in self-reported binge drinking of 8.8% (from 43.0% to 34.2%). The apparent effectiveness of this prevention effort suggested that changing college students' perceptions of drinking norms may lower the proportion of students who engage in binge drinking.

Given the prevalence of alcohol consumption and the relative infrequency of harm among college students, the authors sought to determine how most college students protect themselves from alcohol-related harm. An analysis of the aggregate National College Health Assessment data identified a cluster of personal protective behaviors that correlated with reduced risk when drinking. Further analysis revealed that nearly three-quarters of student drinkers regularly employ at least 1 protective behavior, and well over half of the students who use protective behaviors routinely employ 2 or more. In addition, the data reveal that student drinkers employ situational abstinence, with nearly 7 out of 10 students reporting that they sometimes or usually refrain from drinking alcohol when they socialize. The use of these protective behaviors is a strong predictor of safety and harm for college-student drinkers.

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