Hobart and William Smith Colleges

46% reduction in proportion of student-athletes drinking more than once per week over two years

Project Description

Hobart and William Smith (HWS) Colleges is an undergraduate liberal arts institution with approximately 135 faculty and 1,800 students. In the fall of 2001, the HWS Alcohol Education Project expanded campus-wide initiatives to focus on the student-athlete subpopulation with a social norms intervention. Misperception of peer norms has been shown by HWS researchers, as well as others, to affect dramatically levels of alcohol use and harm. Moreover, student-athletes have been shown to consume more alcohol than their non-athlete peers, and also to misperceive their peer norms. The project introduces a comprehensive campaign targeted at student-athletes to promote positive norms, reduce harmful misperceptions about student drinking norms, and ultimately reduce high-risk drinking among athletes on this undergraduate residential campus with the development of innovative social marketing strategies.

Project Funding Source

U.S. Department of Education Drug and Violence Prevention in Higher Education grants

Project Objective

To reduce student-athlete misperceptions, and the general student body misperceptions, of student-athlete use, actual use, and harm caused by use.

Baseline Data

A representative campus-wide survey in 2001 revealed that:

• 66% of student-athletes typically consumed alcohol once per week or less often
• 88% of student-athletes believe one should never drink to an intoxicating level that interferes with academics or other responsibilities
• 71% of student-athletes inaccurately perceived that most student-athletes consume alcohol more often than once per week
• 51% of student-athletes inaccurately perceived that female student-athletes consume alcohol more than once per week
• Median number of drinks at parties and bars for student-athletes was 6
• Median perceived number of drinks was 7 at parties and bars; 31% perceived that the norm was 10 or more drinks

Sample Normative Messages

(Click on any message in order to view that particular piece of media.)

• The majority (66%) of student-athletes drink alcohol once per week or less often or do not drink at all
• 88% of student-athletes believe one should never drink to an intoxicating level that interferes with academics or other responsibilities.
• The majority of athletes (71%) do not use alcohol to relieve academic pressures.
• 82% of student-athletes never injure themselves or others as a result of alcohol consumption during the academic year
• 89% of athletes never miss, or perform poorly in, athletic events as a result of drinking during the academic year

Marketing Methods Employed

Print media include MVP factoids (campus newsletter column in sports section, poster displays, campus newspaper ads, sport towels, pocket calendars, and water bottles. Messages were also deployed by targeted electronic mail. A significant innovation of this intervention is the development of the MVP factoid screen saver program that randomly displays facts from the MVP factoids database; this program was installed on kiosks in high traffic areas in athletic facilities and on every public-accessed college-owned computers and many faculty and administrative office computers. In addition, interactive multimedia access to the "MVP Factoids" computer application was created so that students and staff are able to browse and search the database by subject and see graphical displays of posters and video clips containing information relevant to the factoid displayed. An interactive CD-ROM was created with sport schedules, news from each team, and coach videos with student-athlete norms woven throughout in an "ad" format. Student-athlete leaders were recruited and trained to lead interactive programs for athletic teams communicating student-athlete norms. Finally, alcohol policy offenders attended workshops with the director of alcohol and other drug programs, where student-athlete norms were presented and compared with the offender's personal use levels.

Evaluation

A web-based survey was administered to all student-athletes each year of the project. Questions about personal substance use, perceptions of other student-athletes' substance use, and perceptions of other non-athletes substance use were collected. In addition, questions were posed collecting data on the level of engagement in academics, in student-life and leadership, and in community service. Student-athlete plans after graduation were also queried.

Project Results

As measured from 2001 (pretest) to 2002/3 (posttest), perceptions and the personal drinking frequency and quantity were reduced as a result of this intervention as described below:

• A 45% decline perceiving alcohol consumption more than once per week as the norm among teammates
• A 42% decline in those perceiving that consuming more than 10 drinks at parties and bars was the norm among friends
• A 46% reduction in student-athletes consuming more than once per week
• A 30% decline in the number of student-athletes with a peak BAC > .08% at parties and bars
• A 34% decline in the number of student athletes experiencing frequent negative consequences as a result of their drinking

Note: The results of this project are published in Perkins, H.W. and Craig, D.W. "A Successful Social Norms Campaign to Reduce Alcohol Misuse among College Student-Athletes", Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 67, (2006) pp 880-89 (full text)

Principal Investigators

H. Wesley Perkins
Department of Anthropology and Sociology
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Geneva, NY 14456
Perkins@hws.edu

David Craig
Department of Chemistry
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Geneva, NY 14456
Craig@hws.edu

Further Information

A Multifaceted Social Norms Approach to Reduce High-Risk Drinking (PDF version)

A Multifaceted Social Norms Approach to Reduce High-Risk Drinking (HTML version)
By H. Wesley Perkins, Ph.D., and David W. Craig, Ph.D.

This 2002 publication provides a comprehensive presentation of the HWS Social Norms Project. Contents include a complete description of program components, including data collection, print media campaigns, electronic media campaigns, curriculum development, and campus presentations. Positive changes in both perceived and actual drinking norms among students before and after the intervention are provided. A highly detailed program activity table is also appended.

See also:
Perkins, H. Wesley and D. Craig. "The HWS Experiment: A Synergistic Social Norms Approach Using Print, Electronic Media and Curriculum Infusion to Reduce Collegiate Problem Drinking," (2003) in The Social Norms Approach To Preventing School And College Age Substance Abuse: A Handbook For Educators, Counselors, And Clinicians, Ed. H. Wesley Perkins. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Craig, David and Perkins, H. Wesley. "Learning about Student Alcohol Abuse and Helping to Prevent It through Service-Learning Initiatives". In Rimmerton, Craig A. (Ed.) Service-Learning and the Liberal Arts, Lanham: Lexington Books, pp.151-169. (Download the entire chapter as a PDF).

The HWS Alcohol and Other Drug Education Project
This is the web site of the HWS Project. It provides an extensive collection of education and research initiatives designed to better inform students and college personnel about alcohol and other drugs and to address problems of abuse. Among the topics covered are:

• MVP program for student athletes
• History of the Project
• Campaign to Reduce Misperceived Norms
• Posters and Poster Campaign
• Web-based Normative Message Campaign
• Use of Electronic Multimedia in a Social Norms Prevention Program