Barry you impress me! I think you are right on the money with this. The
terms binge and high risk are less important than the fact that the message
is carrying little impact to the students who are involved in high risk
drinking behavior. Motivating change in behavior is the key and the
enviromental model can help facilitate "faster" motivation. Also you keep
the emotional aspect out of it which loses people. You provided a very
important perspective to this debate.
At 06:42 PM 01/24/2000 -0600, you wrote:
>I think the problem with the deadly rite of passage article goes much
>deeper than just the term binge and high risk drinking. Substantial
>evidence exists that warning or alarming drinkers about alcohol tends to
>serve as a potential source of normative misperceptions for both drinkers
>and the public and has had little effect in the last 100 years in changing
>drinking behavior. While the article may have some merit as Robert has
>pointed out, I feel strongly that we need to move away from trying to scare
>students. The same information can be presented with a different approach
>that still addresses the scope of the problem
>
> Most school based and college alcohol prevention programs have been
>predicated on using educational methods to increase knowledge.
>Disseminating information about the adverse legal, health and social
>negative consequences of alcohol use is based upon the assumption that
>students who choose to drink alcohol are not aware of the potential dangers
>and risks. It is assumed increased knowledge of risk or consequences will
>increase negative attitudes toward not drinking which will in turn then
>lead to safe healthy behavioral choices (Botvin, 1996). Although many
>prevention programs continue to use this educational approach, few studies
>using experimental controls with outcome measures have reduced high-risk
>drinking and alcohol related consequences (Goodstadt, 1986 & Moskowitz,
>1989). Conclusions from the alcohol prevention research suggest the need
>for developing new research based college and school prevention programs
>grounded in a behavioral change theoretical model.
>
>
>
>Barry M. Gregory M.Ed.
>Alcohol and Other Drug Counselor
>Counseling Center
>Florida Atlantic University
>777 Glades Rd.
>Boca Raton, Fl. 33431
>fax:561-297-2740
>1-561-297-2138
>Bgregory@fau.edu
>http://www.fau.edu/student/aod/
>http://www.fau.edu/student/counsel/
>
April H. Liddle, MSW
Counseling Specialist
Florida Atlantic University
Counseling Center
777 Glades Road
Boca Raton, FL 33431
email: aliddle@fau.edu
(561) 297-3540
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