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Reality Check: A New Approach to Alcohol Education

If you've walked around the campus and into the residence halls lately, you've probably seen posters that say, "A majority of our students drink 5 or fewer drinks per week or don't drink at all."

The posters are part of the Reality Check campaign begun this semester to curb high-risk, irresponsible drinking. After four alcohol-related deaths in the last five years and numerous other alcohol-related incidents, the university and the Campus Alcohol and Drug Education Center (CADEC) are hoping this campaign, modeled after other successful programs, will work at CSU, Chico.

The Reality Check campaign attempts to replace exaggerated notions of how much and how often other students drink with more realistic ones. "If students think something is normal, they tend to alter their behavior to fit the norm," said Shauna Quinn, coordinator of CADEC. "This misperception leads to an assumption of what level of alcohol or drug consumption is acceptable."

Last fall, CADEC received the results of its spring 2000 survey of alcohol and drug use among CSU, Chico students. This random sample survey of 1,192 students is the springboard for Reality Check. This three-year "social norming" campaign targets alcohol use and high-risk drinking among students, particularly first - time students.

Some results of the survey are encouraging, such as that "60 percent of students drink two or fewer times per week." But it also shows that 93 percent of students had used alcohol, higher than the national average of 85 percent. A key finding is that students substantially overestimate the frequency and amount of alcohol use by fellow students. For example, 84 percent of CSU, Chico students believe the average CSU, Chico student drinks three times a week or more. In fact, only 40 percent drink that often.

Armed with this and other statistics from the campus survey, the Reality Check campaign will attempt to change students' perceptions and, correspondingly, their behavior. The strategy is based on a social theory of behavior that says human beings have a drive to conform to the most common behavior around them, explained Walt Schafer, Sociology, who is acting as a consultant to the project at the request of President Esteban. The social marketing approach, developed at Northern Illinois University, reduced high - risk drinking at NIU by 44 percent over a nine - year period. The University of Arizona reduced high - risk drinking by 28 percent over just three years.

Chico's campaign slogan came from a student during CADEC's testing of messages in focus groups. As more ads and posters are developed, their messages will be tested with students to find the phrases that have the greatest impact. The messages have to be positive, inclusive, and delivered over a long period of time.

Are students noticing the posters? According to John Lauer, Housing, the posters are generating conversations in the residence halls about how much drinking is actually normal. He looks forward to next fall, when "the first day that students arrive, this information will be available as they're thinking about what student life is going to be like."

Rebecca Berner, program assistant for CADEC, said, "It may look like we're trying to gloss over the problem or act like we don't have a problem. That isn't true at all. We are simply providing more realistic information about alcohol use."

Initial funding for the campaign came primarily from Nancy Hodges in memory of her daughter. Additional funding came from Smucker's Quality Fruit Drinks and from an anonymous donor. CADEC is applying for a grant from the Department of Education to expand the program, said Quinn.

Reducing high - risk drinking among students requires a concerted effort by the entire campus community and the community at large. Quinn hopes faculty will support the campaign by allowing CADEC to conduct their surveys during class. "We have to have the data to make it work," she noted. CADEC also encourages faculty to include discussion of alcohol in their course material.

As an example, Quinn mentioned nutritionist Cindy Wolff's use of alcohol data to talk about the empty calories, the effect alcohol has on nutrition, and on academic success.

A primary strategy of the campaign is repetition: "You can't change perceptions just by putting a poster up; it has to be repeated. The messages have to come at students from a variety of ways, using a variety of mediums and different normative messages," said Berner.