The Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Age Substance Abuse offers educators, counselors, and clinicians a handbook for understanding and implementing a new and highly successful alternative to traditional methods for preventing substance abuse among young people. The proven "social norms" approach outlined in this book identifies young people's dramatic misperceptions about their peer norms and promotes accurate public reporting of actual positive norms that exist in all student populations. The contributors to this important book are the originators, pioneers, and active proponents of this new approach. Many of them have successfully applied the social norms approach in secondary and higher education settings and as a result have promoted healthier lifestyles among adolescents and young adults across the United States.

Reducing dangerous drinking on college campuses has received a great deal of attention from prevention specialists, researchers, and college health professionals. This book describes an innovative way to approach the problem of dangerous drinking among college students and describes an award winning prevention campaign.

Alcohol use by young people is extremely dangerous - both to themselves and society at large. Underage alcohol use is associated with traffic fatalities, violence, unsafe sex, suicide, educational failure, and other problem behaviors that diminish the prospects of future success, as well as health risks â€" and the earlier teens start drinking, the greater the danger. Despite these serious concerns, the media continues to make drinking look attractive to youth, and it remains possible and even easy for teenagers to get access to alcohol. Why is this dangerous behavior so pervasive? What can be done to prevent it? What will work and who is responsible for making sure it happens? Reducing Underage Drinking addresses these questions and proposes a new way to combat underage alcohol use. It explores the ways in which may different individuals and groups contribute to the problem and how they can be enlisted to prevent it. Reducing Underage Drinking will serve as both a game plan and a call to arms for anyone with an investment in youth health and safety.

This document describes an effort to change perceptions of social norms and examines the effect of this change on binge drinking and alcohol-related problems at Northern Illinois University (niu). The first section of the report discusses the historical and theoretical basis for this approach to prevention. The next section describes a campus-based mass media campaign designed to change student perceptions of drinking norms implemented by niu after the failure of a more traditional alcohol abuse prevention program. The document describes in detail the methods used for this program. Sample media messages are provided, along with a discussion of the effects of student focus groups and research on the cost effectiveness of mass media programs. The report also addresses applications of the approach to different campus settings, including commuter schools, schools without newspapers, and small-enrollment colleges. Suggestions for applying the model to women, athletes, fraternity and sorority members, and ethnic minorities are also offered. During the course of the campaign, niu students reported reduced binge drinking for each of six years measured for this report, as well as fewer alcohol-related injuries to self and fewer injuries to others. Appendices include an annual budget for the program and copies of survey instruments. (Contains 19 references.) (Mab).

This instructive manual presents a pragmatic and clinically proven approach to the prevention and treatment of undergraduate alcohol abuse. The BASICS model is a nonconfrontational, harm reduction approach that helps students reduce their alcohol consumption and decrease the behavioral and health risks associated with heavy drinking. Including numerous reproducible handouts and assessment forms, the book takes readers step-by-step through conducting BASICS assessment and feedback sessions. Special topics covered include the use of DSM-IV criteria to evaluate alcohol abuse, ways to counter student defensiveness about drinking, and obtaining additional treatment for students with severe alcohol dependency. Note about Photocopy Rights: The Publisher grants individual book purchasers nonassignable permission to reproduce selected figures, information sheets, and assessment instruments in this book for professional use. For details and limitations, see copyright page.

Scientists, educators, and parents of teens have long recognized the potency of peer influences on children and youth, but until recently, questions of how and why adolescents emulate their peers were largely overlooked. This book presents a comprehensive framework for understanding the processes by which peers shape each other's attitudes and behavior, and explores implications for intervention and prevention. Leading authorities share compelling findings on such topics as how drug use, risky sexual behavior, and other deviant behaviors "catch on" among certain peer groups or cliques; the social, cognitive, developmental, and contextual factors that strengthen or weaken the power of peer influence; and the nature of positive peer influences and how to support them.