The ‘social norms’ approach to alcohol misuse prevention: Testing transferability in a Scottish secondary school context

Abstract

Aim: To report baseline findings and discuss their implications for the transferability of the predominantly American 'Social Norms' approach to alcohol misuse prevention to a UK (Scottish) secondary school setting. Design, setting, participants and measurement: Baseline data from a 3-year control case study are reported here, and data from the larger study will be published later. Both schools are located in the central belt of Scotland within the same local authority area. This article reports the baseline results for the intervention school only. In total, 686 pupils of mixed age (12-18 years) participated at baseline. The mean age of pupils was 14 years and 4 months (SD ¼ 1 year and 7 months) and 54% of the sample were male. Baseline data were collected by self-reported questionnaire during class time in April 2009. Findings: Substantial misperceptions of theoretical importance were found among secondary school pupils: what peers usually drink when with friends, frequency of drinking and frequency of drunkenness. A range of attitudinal misperceptions have also been identified. Conclusion: Baseline data are consistent with the social norms theory, i.e. that young people tend to overestimate how much and how often their peers consume alcohol. Early indications suggest that the 'Social Norms' approach to alcohol misuse prevention may be transferable to a Scottish secondary school setting. Two main questions, however, remain unanswered: first, the extent to which findings are influenced by a theoretical artefact and second, does the approach produce behaviour change?

A systematic review of the Alcohol norms literature: A focus on context

“…A British study utilizing a student sample found that respondents estimated others' alcohol consumption to be signifi cantly more frequent and greater in quantity than their personal consumption (McAlaney & McMahon, 2007b). Similarly, Scottish students have been found to overestimate how much and how often their peers consume alcohol (Martinus, Melson, Davies, & Mclaughlin, 2012) and French students showed a 56% overestimation in peer alcohol approval and consumption, such also being positively associated with heavy episodic drinking (Franca, Dautzenberg, & Reynaud, 2010). Studies in Czechoslovakia (Page et ah, 2008), Finland (Lintonen & Konu, 2004) and Australia (Hughes, Julian, Richman, Mason, & Lang, 2008) also showed similar findings.…”

Examining alcohol management practices in community sports clubs: a systems approach

“…This style of club management is grounded in the view that individual decisions are influenced via club regulations and norms and the norms developed within the team. Norms at the team-level will be more salient than the group norms of the club, when team members have a strong attachment to the team (Giguère et al, 2014;Martinus et al, 2012). Research evidence suggests that selfregulation of alcohol consumption in a group setting will occur when transgressions of group norms result in feelings of guilt or shame, affected by the level of attachment to the group, which can result in decreased alcohol consumption in following drinking occasions (Giguère et al, 2014).…”

Regional and Cultural Aspects of Prevention

“…They also try to correct normative misperceptions about drug use. This area, called "normative education," is still quite underdeveloped despite positive evidence (Martinus et al 2012;Sussman et al 2004). Many other manualized programs, though, still have information provision as the key component, with frontal (as opposed to interactive) delivery.…”