National Social Norms Institute

Articles by Year - 2011

Bertholet, N., Gaume, J., Faouzi, M., Daeppen, J., & Gmel, G. (2011). Perception of the amount of drinking by others in A sample of 20-year-old men: The more I think you drink, the more I drink. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 46(1), 83-87. doi:10.1093/alcalc/agq084
go to summary

Buckner, J. D., Ecker, A. H., & Proctor, S. L. (2011). Social anxiety and alcohol problems: The roles of perceived descriptive and injunctive peer norms. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 25(5), 631-638. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2011.02.003
go to summary

Doumas, D. M., Workman, C., Smith, D., & Navarro, A. (2011). Reducing high-risk drinking in mandated college students: Evaluation of two personalized normative feedback interventions. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 40(4), 376-385. doi:DOI: 10.1016/j.jsat.2010.12.006
go to summary

Engler, J. N., & Landau, J. D. (2011). Source is important when developing a social norms campaign to combat academic dishonesty. Teaching of Psychology, 38(1), 46-48. doi:10.1177/0098628310390848
go to summary

Fugas, C. S., Meliá, J. L., & Silva, S. A. (2011). The “is” and the “ought”: How do perceived social norms influence safety behaviors at work? Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 16(1), 67-79. doi:10.1037/a0021731
go to summary

Gidycz, C. A., Orchowski, L. M., & Berkowitz, A. D. (2011). Preventing sexual aggression among college men: An evaluation of a social norms and bystander intervention program. Violence Against Women, doi:10.1177/1077801211409727
go to summary

Haug, S., Ulbricht S., Hanke, M., Meyer, C., and John, U. (2011). Overestimation of drinking norms and its association with alcohol consumption in apprentices. Alcohol and Alcoholism. 46, (2), 204–209.
go to summary

Jang, S.A., Rimal, R.N., & Cho, N. (April 2011). Exploring Parental Influences in the Theory of Normative Social Behavior: Findings From a Korean High School Sample. Communication Research. doi: 10.1177/0093650211407061
go to summary

Killos, L. F., Hancock, L. C., Wattenmaker McGann, and A., Keller, A. E. (2010). Do “clicker” educational sessions enhance the effectiveness of a social norms marketing campaign? Journal of American College Health, 59, (3) 228-230. go to summary

LaBrie, J. Hummer, J.F., Lac, A., Ehret, P.P., & Kenney, S.P. (2011). Parents Know Best, But Are They Accurate? Parental Normative Misperceptions and Their Relationship to Students’ alcohol-Related Outcomes. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 72(4), 521-529.
go to summary

Larimer, M.E., Neighbors, C., LaBrie, J.W., Atkins, D.C., Lewis, M.A., Lee, C.M., Kilmer, J.R., Kaysen, D.L., Pedersen, E.R., Montoya, H., Hodge, K., Desai, S., Hummer, J.F., & Walter, T. (2011). Descriptive Drinking Norms: For Whom Does Reference Group Matter? Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 72 (5), 833-843. go to summary

Lewis, M. A., Patrick, M. E., Lee, C. M., Kaysen, D. L., Mittman, A., & Neighbors, C. (2011, May 9). Use of Protective Behavioral Strategies and Their Association to 21st Birthday Alcohol Consumption and Related Negative Consequences: A Between- and Within-Person Evaluation. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0023797
go to summary

McDonnell, K.A. Burke, J.G., Gielen, A.C., O’Campo, P. & Weidl, M. (2011). Women’s perceptions of their Community’s social norms towards assisting women who have experienced intimate partner violence. Journal of Urban Health, 88(2), 240-253. doi: 10.1007/s11524-011-9546-9
go to summary

Melnyk, V., Herpen, E. V., Fischer, A. R. and van Trijp, H. C. (2011). To think or not to think: The effect of cognitive deliberation on the influence of injunctive versus descriptive social norms. Psychology and Marketing, 28: 709–729. doi: 10.1002/mar.20408
go to summary

Melson, A.J., Davies, J.B. & Martinus, T. (2011).Overestimation of peer drinking: error of judgementor methodological artefact? Addiction, 106 (6). 1078–1084. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03392.x
go to summary

Neighbors, C., Atkins, D. C., Lewis, M. A., Lee, C. M., Kaysen, D., Mittmann, A., Fossos, N., & Rodriguez, L. M. (2011, May 30). Event-Specific Drinking Among College Students. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0024051
go to summary

Neighbors, C., Jensen, M., Tidwell, J, Walter, T., Fossos, N., and Lewis, M.A. (2011). Social-norms interventions for light and nondrinking students. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations. 1-19.
go to summary

Neighbors, C., Lindgren, K. P., Knee, C. R., Fossos, N., & DiBello, A. (2011). The Influence of Confidence on Associations Among Personal Attitudes, Perceived Injunctive Norms, and Alcohol Consumption. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0025572
go to summary

Nguyen, N., Walters, S. T., Wyatt, T. M., & DeJong, W. (2011) Use and correlates of protective drinking behaviors during the transition to college: Analysis of a national sample. Addictive Behaviors, In Press, Corrected Proof. DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2011.06.002
go to summary

Nolan, J. M. (2011). The cognitive ripple of social norms communications. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, doi: 10.1177/1368430210392398 go to summary

O'Grady, M.A., Cullum, J., Tennen, H., & Armeli, S. (2011). Daily Relationship Between Event-Specific Drinking Norms and Alcohol Use: A Four-Year Longitudinal Study. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 72(4), 633-641. go to summary

Park, Hee Sun , Smith, Sandi W. , Klein, Katherine A. and Martell, Dennis. (2011). 'College Students' Estimation and Accuracy of Other Students' Drinking and Believability of Advertisements Featured in a Social Norms Campaign', Journal of Health Communication, 16: 5, 504 — 518. DOI: 10.1080/10810730.2010.546481
go to summary

Perkins, H.W., Craig, D.W., and Perkins, J.M. (2011). Using social norms to reduce bullying: A research intervention among adolescents in five middle schools. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, published online on 7 April 2011.
go to summary

Scribner, R.A., Theall, K.P., Mason, K., Simonsen, N., Schneider, S.K., Towvim, L.G. & DeJong, W. (2011). Alcohol prevention on college campuses: the moderating effect of the alcohol environment on the effectiveness of social norms marketing campaigns. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 72(2):232-9.
go to summary

Taylor, C.A., Hamvas, L., Rice, J. Newman, D.L., and DeJong, W. (2011). Perceived social norms, expectations, and attitudes towards corporal punishment among an urban community sample of parents. Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 88, (2), 254– 269. go to summary

Walker, D. D., Neighbors, C., Rodriguez, L. M., Stephens, R. S., & Roffman, R. A. (2011, August 15). Social Norms and Self-Efficacy Among Heavy Using Adolescent Marijuana Smokers. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0024958
go to summary

Wang, X., & McClung, S. R. (2011). Toward a detailed understanding of illegal digital downloading intentions: An extended theory of planned behavior approach. New Media & Society, doi:10.1177/1461444810378225
go to summary

Cultural note: According to the International Center for Alcohol Policies, the legal drinking and alcohol purchasing ages in Switzerland are: 16 or 18 years of age depending on the canton, for beer, cider and wine; 18 in all cantons for spirits.

Objective:
To investigate the extent of misperceptions surrounding alcohol use in a random sub-sample of an entire population of 20-year-old French-speaking men in Switzerland.

Method:
The researchers conducted a survey among 20-year-old males attending the mandatory medical assessment portion of the Swiss army recruitment process.

In all, 9686 (80%) of the conscripts completed a brief self-administered screening questionnaire assessing alcohol and other drug use, containing questions on drinking frequency and quantity per day. These data were used to compute the census norms.

A random sample (n = 433) of men responded to the question about what percentage of people their age drink more than they do. Individuals reporting no alcohol use were averaged into the overall computation of the census-based alcohol use estimates. However, to study a more homogeneous group, subjects in the random sample that provided drinking perceptions but did not use alcohol in the past 6 months were dropped from further analyses leaving a random sample of individuals who were classified as “drinkers” (n = 404).

To determine the proportion of individuals in the census who drank more alcohol than each participant, the weekly alcohol consumption (in standard drinks) of each of the 404 subjects was compared with the weekly alcohol consumption of each of the 9686 conscripts. The proportion of the sample that reported higher, lower or similar alcohol consumption was determined for each subject.

The authors compared the ‘perceived’ to the ‘computed’ percentages and classified the drinkers as overestimating the drinking or abstaining behaviors of others. The authors then compared the alcohol consumption of those who overestimated drinking by others to those who did not, using analyses of variance/covariance and used logistic regression models to evaluate the impact of age, education level, occupation, living environment and family history of alcohol problems on estimations of drinking by others.

Results:
Among the 404 drinkers, the mean (SD) number of drinks/week was 7.95 (9.79); 45.5% of the sample overestimated drinking by others, while 35.2% underestimated it and 19.3% made an accurate estimation. The likelihood of overestimating increased as individual alcohol use increased. Those overestimating consumed more alcohol than those who did not; the adjusted mean number of drinks/week (SE) was 11.45 (1.12) versus 4.50 (1.08), P < 0.0001. Except for current drinking, no other variables were significantly associated with overestimation.

Conclusion:
Misperceptions surrounding the amount of drinking by others (particularly the strong tendency towards overestimation) is prevalent among 20-year-old Swiss men. The author’s found a strong link between one’s drinking behavior and estimates of the amount of drinking by others, which was independent of several other common factors in the population (age, education level, occupation, living environment and family history of alcohol problems).

Implications for the Field:
This study confirms prior findings within selective student populations. It sets the stage for preventive actions, such as normative feedback based on social norms theory

Objective: To investigate the relationship between social anxiety, alcohol-related problems, drinking frequency and quantity, and descriptive and injunctive norms

Method: Participants (N= 873) completed computerized versions of study measures using a secure, on-line data collection website. The survey included measures of anxiety (Social interaction anxiety scale (SIAS)), depression (DASS-21), drinking behaviors (Daily drinking questionnaire-revised (DDQ)) and alcohol problems (Rutgers alcohol problems index (RAPI)). Additionally, the survey contained measures of potential mediators of the social anxiety/alcohol-related problems relationship including: descriptive norms (Core Institute’s Campus Assessment of Alcohol and Other Drug Norms) and injunctive norms. MANOVA and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted.

Results: 1. No main effect was found between social anxiety group status and drinking frequency or quantity. 2. Social anxiety was significantly, positively related to alcohol-related problems. 3. Socially anxious drinkers did not differ from other drinkers in endorsement of descriptive and injunctive norms. 4. Injunctive (but not descriptive) norms worked synergistically with social anxiety group status in the relationships with drinking frequency and alcohol-related problems.
5. The relationship of social anxiety group status with drinking quantity was moderated by descriptive (but not injunctive) norms. Importantly the moderation relationships were observed after controlling for a wide range of relevant variables (i.e., depression, anxiety, sex, living situations, etc.).

Conclusion: These findings highlight the importance of a cognitive variable (injunctive norms) that may play a role in alcohol-related problems among those with clinical levels of social anxiety, a group at particular risk for developing alcohol-related problems.

Implications for the Field: The identification of the impact of injunctive norms on drinking behaviors among socially anxious individuals may have important treatment implications as therapists may consider targeting maladaptive thoughts regarding friend approval of risky drinking when treating patients with co-occurring social anxiety and alcohol problems.

Accessible at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0887618511000260

Objective:
The aim of this study is to extend the literature by examining the efficacy of self-guided feedback relative to counselor-guided feedback following a computerized assessment in reducing heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems in mandated college students.

Method:
Students (N=135) who were referred to the University Counseling Services for violating the university alcohol policy from fall 2007 to fall 2008 and agreed to participate in the study were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: Web-based assessment with self-guided personalized normative feedback (SWF) or Web-based assessment with counselor-guided personalized normative feedback (CWF). Measures of alcohol consumption, alcohol-related consequences and perceived peer drinking norms were given pre and post intervention.

Results:
Results indicated that students in the CWF condition reported significantly greater reductions in weekly drinking quantity and binge drinking frequency than those in the SWF group at follow-up (M = 8 months). Students in the CWF group also reported significantly greater reductions in estimates of peer drinking from baseline to the follow-up assessment than students in the SWF group. In addition, changes in estimates of peer drinking partially mediated the effect of the intervention on changes in drinking.

Conclusions:
Results suggest that counselor-guided feedback may be more effective in reducing drinking among mandated students relative to self-guided feedback in the long term.

Implications for the field:
Results of this study suggest that providing Web-based normative feedback with counselor-guided feedback is a promising strategy for the reduction of high-risk drinking in the mandated student population. Although counselor guided feedback is more costly than self-guided feedback, the one-session format including Web-based assessment and counselor-guided feedback examined in this study is less costly than a two-session BASICS format.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740547211000079

Objective:
To examine the effect of information source on students’ estimates of academic dishonesty.

Method:
One hundred twenty-seven undergraduates at a small, private liberal arts college read an estimate of the incidence of academic dishonesty. Half of the participants were told that the source was a professor’s study and the other half heard that the source was a student’s study. Participants then estimated the likelihood that they, their friends, and the average college student would plagiarize or cheat on tests. The researchers conducted two separate 2 x 3 mixed design analyses of variance (ANOVAs) on plagiarism and cheating estimates to determine if source (professor vs. student) affected the three different target estimates (average student, friend, self).

Results:
The results from this experiment demonstrated that when the source of a statistic about academic dishonesty was a professor, students were more likely to provide estimates of cheating and plagiarism that more closely approximated the provided statistic compared to when the source was a student.

Conclusions:
Taken together with previous findings (Thombs et al., 2004), these results indicate that students are attentive to the source of these messages and may use this information, in part, to determine their behavioral response to the normative message they receive.

Implications for the field:
These findings are important because they demonstrate the importance of the source of the message when creating social norms campaigns designed to reduce academic dishonesty. Efforts to identify and use credible sources (perhaps professors) to share messages about the true levels of academic dishonesty will contribute to more successful social norms campaign outcomes.

http://top.sagepub.com/content/38/1/46.full.pdf+html

Objective: To examine whether supervisors’ and coworkers’ descriptive and injunctive safety norms influence proactive and compliance safety behaviors

Method: Participants (N = 129) were male operational workers from a passenger transportation company with a high degree of reliability. Data were gathered via surveys at two points in time approximately one year apart. Surveys included measures of descriptive and injunctive safety norms for supervisors and co-workers, one’s own safety behaviors, on-the-job micro-accident frequency and injury severity and occupational accident rates/lost work days. Analyses included the calculation of Spearman’s correlation coefficients, CFA and structural equation modeling.

Results: 1) Workers perceived themselves as performing more compliance safety behaviors than proactive safety behaviors. 2) Proactive safety behavior increased when workers perceived that their peers also performed proactive safety practices. 3) Supervisors’ and coworkers’ descriptive and injunctive safety norms did not impact compliance safety behavior. 4) The perception of supervisors’ safety practices did not impact individual safety behaviors (compliance safety behavior was only predicted by safety training).

Conclusion: These findings emphasize the differences between supervisors’ and coworkers’ descriptive and injunctive norms as sources of social influence on compliance and proactive safety behavior. The results of this study suggest that peers are effective models of proactive safety behavior: coworkers’ descriptive norms permit an individual to lessen the personal risks to which he or she is exposed while working, provide information about what behaviors are safe and unsafe in fulfilling one’s tasks, and provide reinforcement, rewarding safe behaviors and punishing unsafe ones.

Implications for the Field: Normative influences, both descriptive and injunctive, should be addressed considering the two sources of influence, supervisors and coworkers, separately. The role of coworkers as a source of normative influence should be explicitly considered, especially in those proactive behaviors often desired in improving safety cultures. Interventions should deviate from individualized learning to focus also on the behavior of whole team.

Accessible at: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/ocp/16/1/67.pdf

Objective:
To evaluate the effectiveness of administering a theoretically driven Sexual Aggression (SA) prevention program for men and a SA risk-reduction program for women college students living in the same campus community. The authors hypothesized that concurrent administration of both programs within intact groups of students, such as residence hall floors, would reduce sexual aggression by promoting a broader systemic change within the community. This study provides results for the men’s program.

Method:
A total of 635 men from 12 1st year residence halls volunteered to participate. Male participants completed a 1.5-hr prevention program and a 1-hr booster session. The workshop protocol (Berkowitz, 1994) has sustained evaluation in two prior studies (Davis, 1997, 2000; Earle, 1996) and was refined (Berkowitz et al., 2000) and further updated for the present study (Berkowitz et al., 2006).

Following a baseline assessment, participants completed the sexual assault prevention program. At the 4-month follow-up, men completed outcome assessments, including their self-reported experiences of sexual aggression over the interim period. After completing the follow-up assessments, program participants attended a booster session review of program material. At the 7-month follow-up assessment, both program and control groups completed outcome assessments.

In accordance with the program’s goals, the following scales were used: the short forms of the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (Payne, Lonsway, & Fitzgerald, 1999), the Hypergender Ideology Scale (Hamburger, Hogben, McGowan, & Dawson, 1996) and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960) and full forms of the Sexual Social Norms Inventory (Bruner, 2002), the Association with Aggressive Peers, Modeling, Differential Reinforcement and Overall Reinforcement subscales of the Social Norms Measure (Boeringer, Shehan, & Akers, 1991), and the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES; Koss & Oros, 1982). Additionally, men’s willingness to support sexual assault advocacy services was assessed through an anonymous telephone survey and two scenarios depicting the perpetration of different forms of sexual aggression (Pinzone-Glover, Gidycz, & Jacobs, 1998) were included to assess participants’ understanding of consent

To examine primary study outcomes, a series of 2 × 2 × 3 (Group × History of perpetration × Time) repeated measures analyses of variance were conducted with significant results indicated by an interaction between time and group status. Tukey’s least significant difference test was used to examine significant two-way interactions via a simple main effects analysis.

Results:
A number of positive outcomes were reported for men who participated in the program. Compared with men in the control group, men in the program group found SA behavior less reinforcing. Program group men evidenced larger decreases in associations with SA peers and exposure to sexually explicit media relative to the control group. Program men also believed that their friends would be more likely to intervene when they witnessed inappropriate behavior in others compared with men in the control group.

Conclusion:
Despite a lack of evidence for attitudinal change among program participants, participants still self-reported that they were less likely to perpetrate over the first follow-up period, a promising key finding. The study suggested that the intervention was successful in working toward changing men’s perceptions of the community culture that condones violence such that after 4 months less SA behavior was perpetrated among program participants. Personally, men reported less exposure to sexually explicit media and lower personal reinforcement for SA behavior. Changes were also evidenced in men’s behavior toward SA men, including a lower tendency to associate with SA men, and the increased perception that other men would intervene if they witnessed inappropriate dating behavior.

Implications for the Field:
Advancing the science of sexual assault prevention interventions for men is an important public health priority. The implementation of concurrent and specifically tailored interventions for women and men living in the same university communities represents an innovative shift in how sexual assault prevention is currently conducted on college campuses.

These findings are noteworthy in light of previous research suggesting that men’s own willingness to intervene is strongly associated with their perceptions of how other men might act in similar situations (Fabiano, Perkins, Berkowitz, Linkenbach, & Stark, 2003). Changing men’s ability to intervene against the behavior of aggressive men requires men to be aware that their peers will support them to intervene. Without the perception of peer support to intervene, it may be difficult for college men to actually take action against the behavior of aggressive peers. Future prevention efforts with men would likely benefit from an increased focus on the development of specific bystander intervention skills as well as the addition of strategies that would ensure that post-treatment gains are maintained.

Although it is ultimately the responsibility of potential perpetrators to take responsibility for ending violence against women, these results suggest that researchers and advocates can play an important role in developing preventative interventions to facilitate community-based change in the norms that serve to condone sexual violence.

Objective:
The purpose of this study was to focus on the drinking behaviors among apprentices in their first year of vocational training. The majority of
this population group is between 15 and 20 years of age and represents a broad range of educational levels. The legal age limit to purchase alcohol in Germany is 16 years for beer and wine and 18 years for spirits. This study complements previous studies concerning social norms and college and university students.

Method:
A survey was carried out among 1,124 apprentices, in their first year of training, who attend three different vocational schools in northern Germany. Using items from the short form of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C), drinking behaviors and normative perceptions of drinking in the reference group of same-gender apprentices were assessed. The researchers wanted to test whether higher descriptive drinking norms result in higher personal alcohol consumption. To do so, the researchers correlated the personal behaviors regarding drinking quantities and frequencies with the perceived norms in gender-specific reference groups.
Alcohol consumption or quantity, frequency of alcohol consumption, and perceived descriptive norms were assessed using different questions from the AUDIT-C. Male apprentices were asked to estimate the alcohol consumption among male apprentices and female apprentices were asked to estimate the alcohol consumption among female apprentices. Questionnaires were completed during regular school lessons in the classrooms of the vocational schools and returned immediately afterward. Demographic, smoking- and drinking-related predictors for normative misperceptions were explored. The researchers interpreted values of the perceived norm above those values of the actual norm as overestimation, values of the perceived norm below values of the actual norm as underestimation and values of the perceived norm corresponding to those of the actual norm as correct estimation. Gender-specific medians were used as the actual norms concerning drinking quantity and frequency.

Results:
Personal drinking behavior was positively correlated with perceived norms, both for drinking frequency and drinking quantity. Alcohol use disorders according to AUDIT-C cut-offs were more prevalent in subjects who overestimated drinking quantity in their reference group than in those who correctly estimated or underestimated drinking. Concerning drinking frequency, this difference was only found in males. Male gender and higher alcohol use were positively associated with normative misperceptions of both drinking quantity and frequency.
Frequency of alcohol drinking was overestimated by 44.9% of the male apprentices (females: 15.7%), 41.8% estimated it correctly (females: 59.2%) and 13.3% underestimated it (females: 25.0%). The quantity of alcohol drinking was overestimated by 40.2% of male apprentices (females: 25.8%), was estimated correctly by 30.1% (females: 33.9%) and (females: 40.3%) was underestimated by 29.7%.
Alcohol use disorders were more prevalent in male apprentices who overestimated drinking frequency in their reference group than in apprentices who correctly estimated or underestimated drinking frequency in their reference group. However, there was no difference in the proportion of alcohol use disorders between female apprentices who overestimated drinking frequency in their reference group and female apprentices who correctly estimated or underestimated drinking frequency in their reference group.

Conclusion:
The findings of this study indicate that there is a positive association
between perceived norms of both drinking quantity and frequency and personal drinking behavior. Also, while alcohol use disorders were also more prevalent in male apprentices who overestimated drinking quantity in their reference group than in those who correctly estimated or underestimated drinking quantity in their reference group, this was not the case for female apprentices. In general, overestimations of alcohol consumption in same-gender apprentices were more prevalent in males, and male gender was positively associated with
over estimations of drinking quantity and frequency in regression models which suggest that gender differences exist in apprentices’ normative misperceptions of
alcohol use. The direction of the gender differences observed in this study is reversed in comparison with previous research, which has found females to have a higher or a similar degree of misperceptions compared to males.

Implications for the Field:
This is the first study investigating drinking social norms and their associations with drinking behavior in a sample of adolescent and young adult apprentices. The results of this confirm the associations observed in college and university student samples between estimates of peer drinking and personal alcohol use.

Cultural note: Adolescents’ use of alcohol has been a growing concern in Korea (D. Shin & Delva, 2004), where drinking initiation recently decreased from 15.1 years in 1998 to 13.1 years in 2006 (Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2007). The legal purchase and consumption age limit in Korea is 19, but it is relatively easy for youth to acquire alcohol because of slack enforcement of laws banning underage purchase and consumption of alcohol (Center for Disease Control Korea, 2008; S. Shin & Sohn, 2008).

Objective:
To extend the purview of the theory of normative social behavior (TNSB) by asking whether parental influences, as perceived by their children, moderate the relationship between descriptive norms and past drinking behaviors (and behavioral intentions) in a sample of Korean high school students. This study also tests the propositions of the TNSB in a culture outside the United States.

Method:
Five hundred thirty-eight adolescents (363 boys, 174 girls) from four high schools in the Seoul metropolitan area in Korea participated in the study. Data were collected by administering a self-report questionnaire that included measures of descriptive norms, perceived parental monitoring and disapproval, intentions to drink alcohol, prior drinking behaviors and ease of access to alcohol. Hypotheses were tested through hierarchical regression equations with three dependent variables: prior drinking behaviors, drinking intentions in the near future, and drinking intentions after turning 19. Control variables (sex, father’s education levels, and ease of access to alcohol) were added in the first step. Descriptive norms and one of the potential moderators (i.e., perceived parental monitoring and perceived parental disapproval of drinking behavior) were added in the second step. Then, the interaction term (product between descriptive norms and one of the potential moderators) was added in the third step. Before computing the interaction terms, they were centered around the means and then standardized, following Aiken and West’s (1991) recommendations.

Results:
Korean teens’ past drinking behaviors were associated with descriptive norms (r = .36), perceived parental monitoring (r = –.17), and perceived parental disapproval of drinking related behaviors (r = –.36). In addition, their future intentions to use alcohol were associated with descriptive norms (r = .38), perceived parental monitoring (r = –.18), and perceived parental disapproval of drinking related behaviors (r = –.40). The correlation between prior drinking and drinking intentions was .66 (p < .001).

Both parental monitoring and parental disapproval variables showed significant associations with drinking intentions and behaviors.

Measures of Korean high school students’ perceptions about the prevalence of alcohol consumption among their peers were linked with their drinking behavior as well as their intentions to consume alcohol.

When Korean adolescents in this study reported that their parents closely monitored and expressed disapproval of their risky behavior, they were less likely to report that they were guided by the high-risk behaviors practiced by their peers. Conversely, adolescents were more likely to be susceptible to peer influences if they believed that their parents were less involved in their alcohol-related behaviors.

Conclusion:
Taken together, the findings from this study suggest that both parental factors and descriptive norms affect mid-adolescents’ drinking behavior and intentions. These results suggest that the deleterious effects of adolescents’ perceptions about the prevalence of alcohol consumption among their peers can be mitigated, to some extent, through active parental involvement.

Implications for the field:
This study expands the TNSB by incorporating parental influences into the model and indicates that the central tenets of the theory also hold up in a culture other than the United States and in
a non-college sample. Additionally this study notes that interventions for this population need to continue including parent-child relationships in their overall strategies.

Killos, L. F., Hancock, L. C., Wattenmaker McGann, and A., Keller, A. E. (2010). Do “clicker” educational sessions enhance the effectiveness of a social norms marketing campaign? Journal of American College Health, 59, (3) 228-230. return to list

Objective:
To determine if audience response technology, or the use of “clickers,” is more effective when compared to a standard social norms marketing approach to reduce misperceptions concerning alcohol use by college students.

Method:
Survey data from the Spring 2009 American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment, which was administered to students at a large 4-year urban public university, were used to compare the impact of a social norms marketing campaign for students who attended interactive or “clicker” sessions to those who received social norms information in the traditional way. The school has been conducting annual social norms marketing campaigns, related to the reduction of students’ use of alcohol, since 2002. The use of “clicker” sessions, as part of the campaign, was first introduced in 2005. Approximately 30 of these interactive sessions were conducted every year. A random sample of 5,000 students at this university was sent the survey and 37% responded. Students that typically participated in “clicker” sessions included incoming first-year students, student leaders, athletic teams, and a variety of academic classes. Chi-square analysis was conducted to measure the contrast.

Results:
Chi-square analyses indicated that survey participants who attended a “clicker” session are significantly more likely to believe that the typical student drinks less than the actual mean of typical consumption. However, students who did not attend any “clicker” sessions are more likely to overperceive the average amount of alcohol that a typical student drinks. In addition, 80%of students who attended these interactive sessions are either accurate or below the mean in actual “typical student” use of alcohol.

Conclusion:
These results indicate that group “clicker” sessions are a more effective way of reducing student misperceptions regarding the use of alcohol by their peers. The use of audience response technology, or “clickers,” can enhance a social norms marketing campaign to reduce alcohol consumption by college students. That is, traditional or standard social norms marketing campaigns may be more effective when supported by “clicker” sessions.

Implications for the Field:
Group-interactive sessions, which use audience response technology such as “clickers,” have the potential to enhance the results of social norms marketing campaigns aimed at reducing college students’ misperceptions about the alcohol consumption of their peers.

Objective:
Parents often look to other parents for guidance, but how accurate are their perceptions? Expanding on existing normative literature to include parents of college students, this study first sought to determine whether parents accurately estimated the attitudes of other parents concerning their college student's alcohol-related behaviors. The effect of these (mis)perceived injunctive norms on the alcohol-related attitudes and behaviors of the parents' own children was then examined.

Method:
Participants were 270 college student–parent dyadic pairs who completed independent online surveys. The student sample was 59% female; the parent sample was 78% female.

Results:
A structural equation model demonstrated that parents significantly overestimated other parents' approval of alcohol use by their respective child and, further, that these misperceptions strongly influenced parental attitudes toward their own child's drinking. Parental attitudes were subsequently found to be significantly associated with their child's attitudes toward drinking but were only marginally associated with the child's actual drinking, thereby underscoring the mediational effect of the child's attitudes.

Conclusion:
This is the first study to document the influence of parental normative misperceptions regarding alcohol use by their college-age children, reinforcing the importance of parental attitudes on children's alcohol-related attitudes and behaviors in college.

Implications for the Field:
These findings support the need to complement student-based interventions with parent-based interventions aimed at increasing parental awareness and involvement. Further, the current findings indicate that normative interventions targeting parents offer a promising avenue by which to indirectly and positively influence college students' alcohol use.

Objective:
The present study examined the relationship between perceived descriptive norms and drinking behavior by ethnicity (Asian or White), sex, and fraternity/sorority status.

Method:
Participants were 2,699 (58% female) White (75%) or Asian (25%) undergraduates from two universities who reported their own alcohol use and perceived descriptive norms for eight reference groups: “typical student”; same sex, ethnicity, or fraternity/sorority status; and all combinations of these three factors.

Results:
Participants generally reported the highest perceived norms for the most distal reference group (typical student), with perceptions becoming more accurate as individuals’ similarity to the reference group increased. Despite increased accuracy, participants perceived that all reference groups drank more than was actually the case. Across specific subgroups (fraternity/sorority members and men) different patterns emerged. Fraternity/sorority members reliably reported higher estimates of drinking for reference groups that included fraternity/ sorority status, and, to a lesser extent, men reported higher estimates for reference groups that included men.

Conclusions:
The results suggest that interventions targeting normative misperceptions may need to provide feedback based on participant demography or group membership. Although reference group–specific feedback may be important for some subgroups, typical student feedback provides the largest normative discrepancy for the majority of students.

Implications for the field:
This article extends social norms literature through the inclusion of a large sample of Asian students and an evaluation of the relationship of both Asian-specific and generic (“typical student”) norms to personal drinking in this population. Both types of norms were positively related to personal drinking, and, even within this relatively lower-drinking subpopulation, the norms for both Asian students and typical students are overestimated. This finding reduces concerns that the provision of normative feedback regarding typical students might increase drinking among lower-drinking subsets of the population, and it provides support for the use of normative feedback interventions for Asian students.

Objective:
To examine between- and within-person relationships among protective behavioral strategies (PBS), alcohol consumption, and related negative consequences during the 21st birthday week.

Method:
Participants for the present study included undergraduate college students (n =1,028) who turned 21 during three academic quarters at a large public northwestern university in the United States. Students completed a Web-based survey that comprised measures of 21st birthday PBS, alcohol consumption, and alcohol-related negative consequences.

Results:
Between-person findings indicated that participants who used more manner of drinking PBS and fewer serious harm reduction PBS consumed fewer drinks and reached lower BACs. Results also showed that participants who used a greater number of limiting/stopping PBS and who used more manner of drinking PBS experienced fewer negative consequences. Within-person findings demonstrated that on days when participants used more limiting/ stopping PBS, fewer manner of drinking PBS, and more serious harm reduction PBS than average they also consumed more drinks and reached higher BACs. When examining negative consequences, within person results showed that on days when participants used more limiting/stopping PBS, fewer manner of drinking PBS, and more serious harm reduction PBS than usual they experienced more negative consequences.

Conclusions:
These findings suggest that students use more limiting/stopping PBS and serious harm reduction PBS and fewer manner of drinking PBS than usual on days they also engage in heavier drinking and experience more subsequent consequences. Findings from this study also provide preliminary support for the assertion that students adjust their use of PBS to accommodate heavier drinking occasions. Further evidence was provided by examining between- and within-person effects of PBS on alcohol-related negative consequences, controlling for average and daily alcohol consumption. For example, between-person findings indicated that limiting/stopping PBS were associated with fewer consequences, whereas within-person findings indicated that limiting/stopping PBS were associated with more consequences.

Implications for the field:
Students in this sample were more likely to use serious harm reduction PBS that were not intended to interfere with their getting intoxicated but may protect them from other harms. As such, the present findings suggest a need for more nuanced approaches to clinical interventions using PBS. When addressing high-risk drinking occasions, like 21st birthday celebrations, clinicians may need to pay closer attention to which PBS students are thinking of using, and in what ways, to address drinking risks both globally and during those specific drinking occasions. It might also be helpful to explore students’ motivations for using PBS.

Link: http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2011-09195-001/

Objective:
To document the development and initial tests of new measures to assess women’s perception of their community’s social norms (both descriptive and injunctive) toward assisting women who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) and how these norms are related to women’s perception of the community, reasons for community assistance toward women experiencing IPV, and their own experience of IPV.

Method:
The authors developed and tested three new measurement tools looking at descriptive norms, injunctive norms, and the perception of one’s community’s interaction with domestic violence.

Systematic measurement development processes were applied to psychometrically develop these measures. The final descriptive and injunctive social norms scales each included eight items that were comparative in their construction. The descriptive social norm items (except for one) began “In my neighborhood, neighbors will…,” whereas the
injunctive social norms (except for one) began “I think neighbors should…” followed by the social norm. Difference scores were computed by subtracting the descriptive norms from the injunctive norms to ascertain the association between the relative difference in these two forms of social norms and potential influencing factors listed below. Additionally, a number of covariates that may influence a woman’s perception of social norms, including her own experience of intimate partner violence as an adult, time lived in her current neighborhood, and overall perception of her neighborhood were assessed.

Psychometric analysis of the final scales was determined by the use of a systematic process incorporating univariate examination of the subscale item distribution, the calculation of a mean item response for each subscale, factor analysis with a varimax rotation, and an internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha utilized to determine scale properties. Paired t tests were used to assess participant perceptions of injunctive and descriptive norms items. Relations between the subscales of social norms and reasons for neighbor involvement or non-involvement were assessed using correlation coefficients. Mean score responses using an analysis of variance were utilized to assess the relationship between social norms and community interaction subscales, and categorical sociodemographic and IPV-related variables.

Results:
The low-income urban women who participated in this project conveyed that the current actions of their neighbors were insufficient to assist women experiencing IPV, as indicated by the significantly lowered levels of descriptive norms compared to injunctive norms. This relationship was also found for the majority of the individual paired items of the two norms scales, indicating that women, especially those who have experienced abuse, would like to see their neighbors offer more instrumental support than they are currently providing to women who are abused by their intimate partners. Significant differences between reported descriptive and injunctive norms were found for marital status, education level and number of reasons for neighbor involvement, among others.

Conclusion:
Overall, the performance of the injunctive and descriptive norms and reasons for neighbor involvement scales support its use as a tool to investigate social norms toward neighbors taking action to assist women experiencing IPV.

Implications for the Field:
To best meet the needs of abused women, especially in potentially earlier stages of IPV when informal sources of support are more widely used than formal support, it is important to examine methods to increase the capacity of community neighbors’ safe involvement in assisting women. Participants’ responses to the descriptive and injunctive norm items elicit possible areas of action the public health community can take to assist women experiencing IPV. These social norms indicate that intervention in an urban environment could focus on programs and interventions to increase the descriptive norms, what is currently being done to better match women’s perceptions of what ought to be done to assist women in need.

Objective:
To investigate the effect of cognitive deliberation for both descriptive and injunctive norms

Method:
The method utilized was experimental and used a three-factor design; more specifically, the design was a 2 (norm formulation: injunctive vs. descriptive) _ 3 (cognitive deliberation level: cognitive load vs. control vs. cognitive deliberation) experimental between-subject design and a two level measured factor (belief in the content of the message: nonbelievers vs. believers). Participants (N = 1,018) were recruited from the CentER data panel, which is representative of the Dutch population in terms of age and gender. The effects of the three factors (norm formulation, cognitive deliberation level, and belief) as well as their interactions on attitude and intention were analyzed using ANOVA. To test whether a different effect of cognitive deliberation level for injunctive and descriptive norms is indeed caused by a difference in the number of positive and negative thoughts, a mediated moderation analysis was conducted, following Muller, Judd, and Yzerbyt (2005).

Results:
Results show that (1) cognitive load limits the influence of both norm formulations, and (2) cognitive deliberation increases the effect of descriptive and decreases the effect of injunctive norms. The positive and negative thoughts made salient by the information are shown to lead to these consequences.

Conclusion:
The level of cognitive deliberation with which norms are being processed affects the influence of social norms on both attitudes and purchase intentions. Generally, when consumers have limited cognitive capacity to process a normative message (e.g., when they are cognitively loaded), their attitudes and intentions will be less in favor of the advocated behavior compared to when they can process the message without cognitive limitations. Furthermore, the effect of cognitive deliberation depends on the formulation of the norm in the message.

Implications for the Field:
It is important to consider the context and channels in which social norms are communicated, as this can affect the motivation, ability, and/or opportunity of consumers to process the information.

Accessible at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mar.20408/abstract

Objective:
To examine whether inclusion of both self- and peer-referent items in the context of a single social norms drinking questionnaire plays an active role in producing the much-reported tendency for young people to overestimate the extent of peers' alcohol-related behavior and the permissiveness of their attitudes towards alcohol.
Method: In a between-subjects design pupils attending two Scottish secondary schools (n=1074; 12-18 years; 52.5% male) completed one of three questionnaires designed to measure a range of alcohol-related behaviors, attitudes and perceptions: a paradigmatic multiple-target questionnaire included self- and peer-referent items while two single-target questionnaires included self-referent or peer-referent items only.

Results:
Pupils’ self-reported drinking behaviors and attitudes were similar, regardless of whether multiple or single-target versions of the questionnaire were used, as were perceptions of peers’ frequencies of alcohol use and drunkenness. In contrast, by comparison with pupils who responded to a single-target version that omitted self-referent items, use of a multiple-target questionnaire was significantly more likely to result in reports that peers would consume alcoholic drinks when with friends and hold more permissive or liberal attitudes towards alcohol.

Conclusions:
Social norms research and related health promotion programs that seek to reduce the extent of overestimation of peer drinking norms are heavily reliant upon multiple-target drinking questionnaires. The use of such a questionnaire may lead to more distorted or extreme perceptions being reported by pupils compared to single-target versions, which omit self-referent drinking items.

Implications for the field:
The use of multiple-target questionnaires should be considered in light of this work which suggests that they may encourage young people to ‘over-overestimate’ peer drinking norms.

Link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03392.x/pdf
Link to commentary on article: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03457.x/pdf

Objective:
To extend previous examinations of event specific drinking by evaluating the prevalence and quantity of drinking on specific holidays in comparison to 21st birthdays and non-holidays in a large sample of college students

Method:
Participants were 1,124 registered undergraduate students who turned 21 during three academic quarters at a large public northwestern university. Students completed a survey which included a 90-day Timeline Follow-back calendar (TLFB; Sobell & Sobell, 2000; Tonigan, Miller, & Brown, 1997). The TLFB included Important campus events, federal and state holidays (e.g., Thanksgiving), and popular secular holidays or other events (e.g., Halloween, 21st birthday). Additionally, Participants could personalize their calendar by selecting other categories to be included in the calendar (e.g., religious observances) or by listing up to 10 individual memorable events and corresponding dates. The number of drinks consumed (if any) and the number of hours the drinks were consumed were assessed for each of the past 90-days. Daily BAC estimates were derived from a modification of the Widmark formula (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1994).

Results:
Descriptive analyses indicated that participants drank on an average of 10.3 (SD _ 12.0) days over the past 90 days and consumed an average of 4.4 (SD _ 3.4) drinks on days when they consumed alcohol. Mean BAC in the sample on drinking days was 0.10 (SD _ 0.09). The overall mean BAC on all days, including drinking and nondrinking days, was 0.02 (SD _ 0.05). There is a regular, weekly difference in drinking across weekends (Thursday-Saturday; M _ 0.03, SD _ 0.07) and weekdays (M _ 0.01, SD _ 0.05)

Several holidays emerged for elevated drinking, including New Year’s Eve and July 4th, whereas other holidays appear more similar to weekend drinking, such as Spring Break and graduation. Estimated BACs on holidays or special occasions were considerably lower than on 21st birthdays (M _ 0.14, SD _ 0.14); 90% of individuals reported at least some drinking on their 21st birthday and with a predicted mean BAC of 0.186 (on original outcome scale), over two times the BAC for a typical weekend when there is drinking.

Results revealed that certain holidays were associated with drinking and drinking notably more than usual (e.g., New Year’s Eve, Spring Break, and July 4th), whereas other holidays showed a split between proportion of students drinking and the quantity consumed. For example, the proportion of individuals drinking on Cinco de Mayo was not significantly different from typical weekend drinking; however, of those who did drink on that holiday, their BACs were estimated to be somewhat higher than typical weekend drinking.

Conclusions:
The results of this study suggest that particular events are differentially associated with high-risk drinking: some holidays are only associated with slightly elevated drinking, while others are associated with high levels of drinking. Twenty-first birthday drinking was associated with the highest proportion of drinkers and highest BAC.

Implications for the field:
Previous research has demonstrated that students who are not typically heavy drinkers, but drink heavily on specific events, are at increased risk for experiencing negative consequences (Lewis et al., 2009). Thus, interventions targeting typically heavy drinking students may miss an important population of students who increase their drinking on special occasions and are at greater risk for experiencing consequences. The results outlined in this article suggest that specific events that are most associated with riskier drinking can be identified. Accordingly, designing interventions around specific, predictable events provides campuses with an opportunity to reduce drinking and risk of consequences around these events.
Targeting specific events in terms of timing and content of the interventions may provide a cost-effective approach to preventing alcohol-related harms associated with these events.

Link: http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2011-10881-001/

Objective:
The impact of social-norms interventions on students who rarely or never drink has not previously been examined in isolation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of two types of online social-norms interventions developed for abstaining or light-drinking students. The interventions were Personalized Normative Feedback (PNF), which compares one’s own drinking behavior and drinking behavior norms for college students and Social Norms Marketing Advertising (SNMA), which presents general information about drinking behavior norms for all college students, via media advertisements. The difference between the two approaches is the level of individual attention that is given to the students.

Method:
Participants included freshmen and sophomore students at a large public northwestern university who met never/rarely drinking criteria in a larger screening survey, and indicated willingness to participate in future studies. The participants completed the baseline survey (n = 480) during the fall quarter of 2008. Participants who met the never/rarely drinking criteria drank once per month or less during the previous three months and had no more than two drinks per drinking occasion. Thus, at screening, at most, participants could have consumed alcohol on three occasions in the past three months and consumed six drinks in the past three months. Among the participants at the initial screening survey, 76.4% (n = 323) reported not drinking any alcohol in the past three months (abstainers). Of those invited, 423 (88.13%) completed the baseline survey. The gender and ethnic representation of those who completed the baseline survey was 60.8% female, 52.5% Asian, 32.9% Caucasian, 9.9% multiracial, and 4.7% other ethnicities or not indicated.

The present study employed an Internet-based 9-month longitudinal experimental design. Participation involved the completion of three computer assessments, including a baseline assessment and intervention administration, a 3-month follow-up, and a six-month follow-up. Each survey took approximately 50 minutes to complete and participants were compensated $25 for each of them. Immediately following completion of the baseline assessment, each participant was randomly assigned to one of three intervention conditions: SNMA (n = 141), PNF (n = 141), or attention control (n = 141). Approximately 3 and 6 months after completing the baseline assessment and intervention administration, participants were invited via email to complete the follow-up surveys. Participants received email and phone reminders to complete each assessment. Alcohol consumption and perceived norms were measured at baseline, 3-month, and 6-month follow-up assessments. Social identity was measured at the baseline assessment. The data were analyzed longitudinally with generalized linear mixed models in HLM.

Results:
Results provided some support for both interventions but were stronger for social-norms marketing ads, particularly among participants who identified more closely with other students. Findings indicated that over time, alcohol consumption and frequency of drinking increased, and that abstinence decreased among control participants, although both interventions were associated with consuming fewer drinks per week over time relative to the control group.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, the present research extends previous implementation of social-norms-based interventions for drinking in several ways. It is the first evaluation of these approaches to specifically target abstaining and light-drinking students. It is also the first direct comparison between SNMA messages and PNF. Finally, it extends a growing literature emphasizing the importance of social identity in constructing norms-based interventions.

Implications for the Field:
The results of this research add to the growing database on college drinking interventions. Alcohol usage is a serious issue on all campuses and decisions regarding how to utilize limited resources available for addressing drinking should ideally be based, at least to some extent, on empirical findings. Based on these and previous findings, the researchers tentatively encourage low cost, high dosage, SNMA campaigns as a primary or universal prevention strategy. Efforts to frame ads in a way that increase social identification are likely to increase efficacy. PNF and other individualized approaches might be considered for students identified as heavy drinkers.

Neighbors, C., Lindgren, K. P., Knee, C. R., Fossos, N., & DiBello, A. (2011, September 19). The Influence of Confidence on Associations Among Personal Attitudes, Perceived Injunctive Norms, and Alcohol Consumption. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0025572 return to list

Objective:
To evaluate confidence as a moderator of associations among perceived injunctive norms, own attitudes, and drinking among students.

Method:
Participants were 708 undergraduates at a large public university who took part in a longitudinal web-based alcohol intervention study. Participants who met heavy drinking criteria completed a baseline survey in Fall 2005. The present study comes from the 12 month follow-up survey.

First-year university students were invited to complete a screening survey. Students who consented and met the heavy drinking inclusion criteria were routed to the baseline survey. Of the participants who met study criteria, 818 (91.3%) completed the baseline survey. Data for this study come from the 12-month follow-up survey (86.6% retention rate).

Survey measures included: 1) participants’ attitudes toward drinking, 2) perceived injunctive norms, 3) confidence in estimates of one’s own approval and friends’ approval of drinking, and 4) Alcohol consumption [as measured by the Daily Drinking Questionnaire; DDQ; (Collins, Parks, & Marlatt, 1985)]

Results:
Injunctive norms were found to be significant, unique predictors of drinking. Study findings did not support confidence as a moderator of personal approval and drinking behavior but did support confidence as a moderator of the relationship between perceptions of others’ approval (injunctive norms) and behavior.

Conclusions:
This research provides evidence that estimates of friends’ approval of drinking are more strongly associated with one’s own drinking when students feel confident in their estimates. Furthermore, these findings suggest that confidence in perceived injunctive norms matters more for women. This may reflect an underlying gender difference in the weighing of confidence in perceptions of others’ approval.

Implications for the field:
This study’s findings are consistent with previous studies as they indicate the importance and reliability of norms as a predictor of drinking. Future clinical research may benefit from considering injunctive norms as additional targets for assessment and ultimately, intervention. Findings that confidence and gender moderated the norms–drinking relationship also suggest the potential utility of assessing confidence in norms; attempting to reduce confidence (increase uncertainty) in those norms; and developing gender specific interventions

Link: http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2011-20737-001/

Objective:
This study examined patterns and correlates of protective drinking behaviors among incoming first-year college students.

Method:
Incoming first-year students (n=76,882) from 258 colleges across the U.S. provided baseline data on demographics, drinking practices, and protective behaviors as part of a web-based alcohol education program. Across the several colleges, responses to protective behavior questions were collected from seven
weeks before the start of the school year to five weeks after.

Results:
Factor analysis identified three protective behavior sub-factors: Limit Drinking, Avoid Drinking and Driving, and Intent to Get Drunk. Both Limit Drinking and Avoid Drinking and Driving generally declined over the course of the data collection period while Intent to Get Drunk and peak blood alcohol concentration increased immediately after the start of school. In multiple regression analyses, the number of heavy drinking episodes in the past two weeks had a strong negative association with a Total Protective Behavior Score and the Limit Drinking Score, and a positive association with the Intent to Get Drunk Score. With the exception of the Intent to Get Drunk Score, women were more likely to use protective behaviors than men. Underage drinkers used protective behaviors less often than their of-age peers, though the effect was small. Race/ ethnicity, time to matriculation, and intent to join/membership in a fraternity/sorority had negligible effects on protective behavior scores.

Conclusion:
College students increase risky drinking after the start of school while progressively using fewer behaviors that might mitigate the consequences of drinking.

Implications for the Field:
This study was the first of its kind to examine the protective behaviors used by a large, national sample of matriculating college freshman who recently drank alcohol.

Link to article

Nolan, J. M. (2011). The cognitive ripple of social norms communications. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, doi: 10.1177/1368430210392398 return to list

Objective:
To investigate the extent and durability of changes in normative beliefs following a one-shot social norms communication about environmental behaviors.

Method:
A group of undergraduate students (N=164) at the University of Arkansas were randomly assigned into one of four conditions. Three of the conditions received a social norms communication and the fourth condition served as a control. In the three social norms communication conditions the level of behavior in an act identity structure for recycling paper was manipulated. The three levels, from high to low level identity, were: protecting the environment, recycling, and recycling paper. Thus, following the generic instructions, participants in the three treatment conditions received a social norms communication that included information about the percentage of students (always 78%) that protected the environment, recycled, or recycled paper and a pie graph showing the percentage visually. In the control condition, participants saw only the generic instructions. Participants took a survey immediately following reading the intervention materials and 1 week and 1 month post intervention follow-up surveys were also conducted. The survey included measures of normative beliefs, self-reported recycling status, past environmental behavior, and demographic items, including questions about the participant’s age, race, and gender.

Results:
Results showed that (1) normative beliefs spilled over to behaviors and referents not specified in the original message; (2) communication and self-knowledge both contributed to participants’ normative belief estimates; and (3) the change in normative beliefs over the one-month period was consistent with Miller and Prentice’s (1996) theory of normative belief construction.

Conclusion:
The results of this study suggest that social norms communications have cognitive ripple effects wherein normative information about one reference group engaging in one level of a behavior spills over to normative beliefs about higher and lower level identifications of the behavior, and groups not originally referenced in the message.

Implications for the Field:
An important conceptual implication of this research is that the anchoring and adjustment heuristic is relevant to our understanding of normative belief change. Consistent with previous research on anchoring, the adjustments made following the social norms communication in this study were also insufficient. That is, participants exposed to the social norms communication did adjust their normative beliefs in the direction of the anchor provided, but rarely adopted the exact percentage. This finding provides a preliminary explanation for why many social norms campaigns are only able to partially correct misperceptions about the promoted social norms. Moreover, these results are important because they suggest that practitioners who use social norms marketing may be getting a bigger cognitive impact than previously realized.

Objective:
This study examined how social-influence processes operate during specific drinking contexts as well as the stability and change in these processes throughout the college years.

Method:
Using a measurement-burst design, a hybrid of longitudinal and daily diary methods, the authors assessed the relationship between event-specific descriptive drinking norms and personal drinking. College students (N = 523) completed a baseline survey followed by a 30-day daily diary each year for up to the 4 study years. The baseline survey assessed participant gender and social anxiety, and the daily survey assessed personal drinking and perceived peer drinking (i.e., event-specific descriptive norms) during social drinking events.

Results:
Multilevel modeling revealed that men's social drinking slightly increased over the 4 years, whereas women's drinking remained steady. Further, on social drinking days when event-specific descriptive norms were high, students drank more, but this relationship was stronger for men than women and did not change over time. However, men's drinking norm perceptions increased across years, whereas women's decreased. Social anxiety did not moderate the relationship between norms and drinking.

Conclusion:
This paper demonstrates that although gender differences exist in the stability and change of personal drinking, norms, and normative influence on drinking across the years of college, the acute social influence of the norm on personal drinking remains a stable and important predictor of drinking throughout college.

Implications for the Field:
These findings can assist with the identification of how, when, and for whom to target social influence–based interventions aimed at reducing drinking among college students.

Objectives:
To examine (a) whether college students who report drinking moderately or not at all (as opposed to drinking heavily) differentially estimate the amount of others’ drinking and how accurate they are in their estimation, (b) the patterns of students’ estimation and accuracy for everyday drinking occasions, and (c) whether students who vary in their believability perceptions of ads used in a social norms campaign have different patterns of estimation and accuracy in that estimation for everyday drinking occasions.

Methods:
The researchers conducted a web-based survey (N=1,069) with a representative sample of undergraduate students at a large Midwestern university in the United States. Participants’ drinking behaviors and their perceptions of other students’ “everyday drinking” behaviors were measured.
Descriptive and injunctive norms messages were used in a social norms marketing campaign which ran in the student newspaper. Of the sample, 542 participants were shown a descriptive norms ad and asked a question on believability of the ad while the other half of the sample (527 participants) were shown an injunctive norms ad and asked the same question regarding believability of the ad. Two dependent variables, estimation and accuracy, were calculated using the aforementioned questions for everyday drinking and questions. Hypothesis testing involved 2 (drinking amount at the last party: zero to four drinks versus five or more drinks)x 2 (ad believability: yes versus no) between-subject analyses.

Results:
Students who reported having 4 or fewer drinks underestimated the percentage of other students who had 4 or fewer drinks, while those who drank 5 or more drinks overestimated the percentage of other students who had 5 or more drinks. Believability of advertisements featured in social norms campaigns also played a crucial role in this process. Those who believed the ad more closely estimated alcohol consumption by their peers while ad believability moderated the relation between drinking behaviors and accuracy.

Conclusion:
The findings of this study show that the explanation of selective exposure to similar others does not hold true here because students with zero to four drinks underestimated the percentage of others who they believed had zero to four drinks. The findings do reveal, though, that it is possible that the group who consumed five or more drinks can still benefit from exposure to a social norms campaign.

Implications for the field:
The present study illuminates that when advertisements are found to be believable, they can be a potential corrective force of misperceived norms. These findings provide directions for social norms campaigns to increase their effectiveness: campaigns can be more successful when more efforts are put into better understanding students’ cognitions, such as ad believability and over- and underestimation of others’ consumption and then incorporating those sound empirical research findings when designing messages.

Objective:
The purpose of this study was to introduce research examining important questions related to perceived norms of bullying in middle school students in New Jersey. Individual attitudes about bullying and behaviors and perceptions of peers of middle school students in grades 6 to 8 in the State of New Jersey were assessed. The researchers considered the extent and direction of misperceptions about bullying as well as how much variation in perceived norms exists. They also examined the degree of association between perceptions of the peer bullying norm and personal involvement in bullying. Finally, the researchers studied the impact that might be produced by disseminating actual norms about bullying in adolescent populations.

Method:
The researchers surveyed students in five middle schools located throughout the State of New Jersey. Each school contained Grades 6 through 8 and almost all students were between the ages of 11 and 14. In an effort to assess perceived norms concerning bullying, survey data were collected using the “Survey of Bullying at Your School,” which is an anonymous online survey (baseline n = 2,589; postintervention n = 3,024). The survey instrument included a series of questions about what are commonly identified as bullying behaviors in schools.
The researchers first hypothesized that students tend to overestimate the prevalence of and support for bullying behaviors. This hypothesis was tested by comparing both the means for actual incidences of bullying and for perceived norms. Next, the researchers hypothesized that students’ personal behaviors and attitudes are associated with what they perceive to be the norm. This was tested by calculating the correlation between the perceived norm and personal behaviors and attitudes about bullying. Finally, the researchers hypothesized that the intervention which provided students with information about actual norms would reduce misperceptions and reduce actual levels of bullying. This hypothesis was tested for each school through a comparison of pre- and post-intervention levels of perceptions and behaviors using an independent samples t test.
Later, an intervention strategy was implemented to reduce the incidence of bullying in these schools. Using print media posters as the primary communication strategy, the accurate norms from each of the schools were displayed. The basic strategy of the social norms intervention was to provide students in each local school with feedback about the results of the initial survey by conveying actual positive norms. Social norm messages about the prevalence of positive behavior and opinion were created for each school based on the survey data of each school.

Results:
In the baseline survey, students substantially misperceived peer norms regarding bullying perpetration and support for probullying attitudes. As predicted by social norms theory, they thought probullying attitudes were far more frequent than was the case. Also as predicted, variations in perceptions of the peer norm for bullying were significantly associated with personal bullying attitudes.
A pre-/post-intervention comparison of results revealed significant reductions overall in perceptions of peer bullying and probullying attitudes. In addition, personal bullying of others and victimization were also reduced and support for reporting bullying to adults at school and in one’s family increased. The extent of reductions across school sites was associated with the prevalence and extent of recall of seeing poster messages reporting actual peer norms drawn from the initial survey data. Rates of change in bullying measures were highest (from around 17% to 35%) for the school with the highest message recall by students after a one-and-a-half-year intervention.

Conclusion:
The findings of this study suggest that a social norms intervention may be a promising strategy to help reduce bullying in secondary school populations.

Implications for the Field:
This study expands the realm of research on misperceptions of peer norms among youth to the phenomenon of bullying in middle schools. Without doubt, participation in bullying behaviors is a serious problem in schools. However, this research finds that middle school students overestimate the prevalence of bullying, and also overestimate support for it in their perceptions of the norm for peer attitudes. The pattern replicates what has been found for other youth risk behaviors, most notably concerning alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use.

http://gpi.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/04/08/1368430210398004
go to summary

Objective:
Evaluations of social norms marketing campaigns to reduce college student drinking have produced conflicting results. This study examines whether the effectiveness of such campaigns may be moderated by on-premise alcohol outlet density in the surrounding community.

Method:
Multi-level analyses were conducted of student survey responses (N= 19,838) from 32 U.S. colleges that took part in one of two 4-year randomized, controlled trials completed for the Social Norms Marketing Research Project (SNMRP). In the models, students by year were nested within treatment (n = 16) and control group (n = 16) campuses, which were characterized by the on-premise outlet density in their surrounding community. The moderating effect of outlet density was introduced into the models as an interaction between the treatment effect (i.e., the effect of the social norms marketing campaigns over time) and outlet density. The models were also stratified by campus alcohol outlet density (high vs. low) to examine the effect of the intervention in each type of setting.

Results:
There was a significant interaction between the treatment effect and on-premise alcohol outlet density for one of the drinking outcomes targeted by the SNMRP intervention, the number of drinks when partying, and marginal evidence of interaction effects for two other outcomes, maximum recent consumption and a composite drinking scale. In stratified analyses, an intervention effect was observed for three of the four outcomes among students from campuses with lower on-premise alcohol outlet density, whereas no intervention effect was observed among students from campuses with higher on-premise alcohol outlet density.

Conclusion:
The findings suggest that the campus alcohol environment moderates the effect of social norms marketing interventions. Social norms marketing intervention may be less effective on campuses with higher densities of on-sale alcohol outlets.

Implications for the Field:
When constructing and/or evaluating a social norms marketing intervention, consider the campus alcohol environment, particularly the density of on-sale alcohol outlets in the environment.

Accessible at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21388596

Objective:
The purpose of this study was to examine parents’ perceived injunctive and descriptive norms regarding corporal punishment (CP) use as possible predictors of parents’ own attitudes toward CP use. The primary aim of this study was to examine associations between these perceived injunctive and descriptive norms regarding CP use, along with parental outcome expectancies of CP use and knowledge of child development, and positive attitudes toward CP. As a secondary aim, the researchers conducted these analyses controlling for a multitude of important demographic constructs known to be linked with attitudes toward and use of CP, including family structure; SES; religiosity; aggression in the family of origin; and child characteristics, particularly age and gender. This survey was conducted among an urban, population-based sample of parents with the intent of informing community interventions designed to shift social contexts associated with approval and use of CP.

Method:
The researchers asked parents about two types of injunctive norms regarding CP: those that they perceived from professionals they sought advice from about child discipline, and those that they perceived from close family and friends. The researchers also asked about the descriptive norms they perceived about CP within their social network of parents. A stratified random-digital telephone survey was conducted in a Southern metropolitan area with a population of almost 400,000. Interviews took about 25 minutes to complete and were conducted between December 2008 and February 2009. The sample size was n=500 and the response rate was 33.4 %.
Data analyses included pairwise correlations of the 6 main predictor variables. Also, one-way ANOVAs were conducted for all demographics with “attitudes toward CP” Six simple (bivariate) ordinary least squares (OLS) models regressing “attitudes toward CP” separately on each of the 6 main predictor variables were also conducted.

Results:
Perceived social norms were the strongest predictors of having positive
attitudes toward CP, as follows: (1) perceived approval of CP by professionals (β=0.30), (2) perceived descriptive norms of CP use (β=0.22), and (3) perceived approval of CP by family and friends (β=0.19); also, both positive (β=0.13) and negative (β=−0.13) expected outcomes for CP use were strong predictors of these attitudes.

Conclusion:
Perceived injunctive and descriptive norms regarding CP, as well as expected
outcomes of CP use, were strong predictors of parents’ attitudes toward CP use. The strongest predictor of parents’ positive attitudes toward CP use was their perception that the professional they were most likely to turn to for advice about child discipline approved of CP.

Implications for the Field:
Targeted efforts are needed to both assess and shift the attitudes and practices of professionals who influence parents regarding CP use. Universal efforts, such as public education campaigns, are also needed to educate parents and the general public about the high risk/benefit ratio for using CP and the effectiveness of non-physical forms of child discipline. In addition, the association between expected outcomes of CP use and attitudes is particularly promising as it indicates a possible mechanism for shifting attitudes among both parents and those who influence them. Hence, intervention efforts that focus on shifting knowledge and outcome expectations regarding CP, targeting both parents and key influencers, especially pediatricians, mental health professionals, and religious leaders, might be a promising approach for shifting attitudes about CP.

Objective:
To extend previous research on the relationship between perceived social norms and marijuana use in a heavy-using adolescent population.

Method:
This study was a secondary data analysis of data collected as part of a randomized controlled treatment trial for adolescent marijuana users (Walker et al., 2011). Adolescents in public high schools in Seattle, Washington were recruited to participate. Inclusion criteria were: (a) 14–19 years of age; (b) enrolled in ninth through 12th grade; and (c) reported using marijuana on nine or more days in the past 30. The majority (98%) of ineligible participants had not used marijuana on at least 9 days in the past month. Only 12-month data were utilized because it is the only time point at which all of the variables were assessed. The total sample was 180 participants.

An Audio-Computer-Assisted Self-Interviewing (A-CASI) program was used at baseline and at the 12-month follow-up to collect assessment data on measures of negative marijuana outcomes, perceived social norms and self-efficacy.

Results:
Students reported using marijuana on an average of 33.6 of the past 60 days (SD _ 22.36; range 0–60) and endorsed an average of 3.83 marijuana-related abuse/dependence symptoms (SD _ 2.89; range 0–11). Within the sample, 35.6% met criteria for DSM–IV (past year) marijuana abuse and 37.2% met criteria for marijuana dependence. SEM analyses indicated that: A) there was a significant direct path predicting marijuana outcomes was evident for descriptive norms, B) self-efficacy was strongly and negatively associated with marijuana outcomes, C) descriptive norms significantly predicted lower refusal self-efficacy, and D) refusal self-efficacy significantly predicted fewer abuse and dependence symptoms.

Conclusions:
Researchers found direct and indirect paths from descriptive norms to marijuana outcomes through self-efficacy, but did not find the same effects for injunctive norms. The authors argue that this may be because descriptive norms are more closely related to actual use whereas injunctive norms are inherently subjective. Moreover, resisting use when others are presently using is likely to be more difficult than when thinking about others’ approval in the absence of actual use.

Implications for the field:
The results of this study suggest two primary implications for intervention: 1) the findings reiterate the importance of supporting or increasing self efficacy and 2) the findings build on previous research in suggesting that strategies designed to reduce perceived descriptive norms may be effective in reducing marijuana use.

Link: http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2011-17702-001/

Objective:
To explore the possible ways to appeal to college students not to download digital content illegally and to expand previous research by using the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991), coupled with attitude functional theory (Katz, 1960) and the social norms approach (Perkins, 2003), to examine the more detailed attitudinal and normative considerations that influence illegal downloading intentions. Illegal digital downloading in this study is defined as downloading behaviors that are related to music, movie, software and other digital media, and is not confined to a single digital form because users usually download several types of digital content.

Method:
This study was based on a cross-sectional survey conducted with undergraduate student participants recruited from two universities in the USA (N=522). The survey included measures of attitude functions, perceived norms of peer approval and behaviors, perceived behavioral control, intentions to download digital files and questions about the number of files they’ve downloaded and when their last download occurred.

Results:
This study revealed that students who believed that illegal downloading would help save money and was convenient and those who did not want to be termed as being afraid of risk were more likely to download illegally, whereas those who had illegality concerns and high moral standards were less likely to download illegally. In addition, perceived social approval for downloading, but not the perceived frequency of others’ downloading behaviors, predicted intentions to download.

Conclusion:
This research shows that college students who are motivated by utilitarian reasons (e.g. costs and convenience) and those who do not want to be termed as being afraid of risk are more likely to engage in illegal downloading, whereas those who have high moral and ethical standards and those who have illegality concerns are less likely to engage in illegal downloading. There is room for the industry to improve college students’ value-expressive function in order to discourage illegal digital downloading.

Implications for the Field:
Although there has been a shift from downloading digital files through a P2P network to accessing streamed content either on a subscription basis or on an unauthorized website, results from the present research are still relevant to scholars and practitioners who attempt to understand and address the issue of illegal downloading. First, this current research shows that those who engage in illegal downloading are motivated by utilitarian reasons. If a website can provide a wide selection of high quality streamed content for a low monthly fee, P2P users might consider accessing streamed content instead. Second, streaming is only limited to music and video content, but not video games or software that a P2P user also needs. Finally, illegal digital downloading through a P2P application is still popular among college students in both the USA and other parts of the world and thus, the findings remain relevant and current.



Home \| Case Studies \| Contacts \| FAQ \| Press Room \| Research \| Resources \| Grantees