Corey - There are several comments I offer in response to your post. first,
a basic premise of social norms campaigns is that regardless of the level
of consumption by a particular population, their perception of what that
cohort is doing is inevitably inflated. If a group's drinking is 67% "binge
drinking," it is likely that their perception of the norm for their peer
group is considerably higher. Consequently, social norms techniques will
work just as well on the "67%" campus as the "44%" campus.
Second, we need to recognize that the 5+/4+ definition of "binge drinking"
is all but ludicrous. My hunch is that if a survey were done (and I do not
have one to suggest) that controlled for weight, time, type and number of
drink, and gender, you would find a far smaller proportion of your students
who were in the high-risk category. As I have argued on this list in the
past, 5 or 6 beers over 4 to 6 hours by a 240 pound fullback on the
football team is certainly not binge drinking and I would not oppose an
argument that it was not even high-risk drinking.
Lastly, I believe that if more of us were to become respectfully intolerant
of the media's message that college drinkers are essentially binge
drinkers, then we would be able to shed more light on, and educate the
administrators about, the fact that we need a no paradigm regarding
collegiate drinking. My hunch is that the confluence of social norms
campaigns, environmental strategies as outlined on the Higher Ed web page,
and the realistic acceptance of the fact that many college students choose
to consume alcohol so perhaps it is better to focus on the more realistic
objective of "harm reduction" for that portion of the population that
chooses to imbibe.
Thanks for the comments.
Robert
Robert J. Chapman, Ph.D.
Coordinator, AOD Programs
Associate Faculty, Clinical/Counseling Psychology
La Salle University Counseling Center
1900 W. Olney Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19141-1199
Phone: 215-951-1355 Fax: 215-951-1451
mailto:chapman@lasalle.edu
home page http://www.lasalle.edu/~chapman/home.htm
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