TY - JOUR
T1 - Perceptions of drinking and related findings from the nationwide campuses study
AU - Licciardone, John C.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was partially supported by grants (P183F20013 and P183F4OOOI) from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, US Department of Education, Washington, DC.
PY - 2003/5
Y1 - 2003/5
N2 - Proponents of social norms approaches maintain that correcting misperceptions of alcohol use among college students may reduce drinking and its consequences. The author used aggregate campus-level data from the Nationwide Campuses Study to test this hypothesis. He defined the misperceptions ratio as the ratio of the frequency of the “average student's” perceived alcohol use to the frequency of self-use at each campus. Each of the 57 colleges reported misperceptions ratios greater than unity. At campuses where students had more accurate perceptions of alcohol use, students were more likely to desire alcohol availability at campus events and to drink on more days throughout the year than at campuses where students had greater misperceptions of alcohol use. The author found no data to support the preferential use of social norms programming on campuses with high levels of self-reported alcohol use or binge drinking. These findings raise questions about potentially unexpected and unintended effects of social norms approaches.
AB - Proponents of social norms approaches maintain that correcting misperceptions of alcohol use among college students may reduce drinking and its consequences. The author used aggregate campus-level data from the Nationwide Campuses Study to test this hypothesis. He defined the misperceptions ratio as the ratio of the frequency of the “average student's” perceived alcohol use to the frequency of self-use at each campus. Each of the 57 colleges reported misperceptions ratios greater than unity. At campuses where students had more accurate perceptions of alcohol use, students were more likely to desire alcohol availability at campus events and to drink on more days throughout the year than at campuses where students had greater misperceptions of alcohol use. The author found no data to support the preferential use of social norms programming on campuses with high levels of self-reported alcohol use or binge drinking. These findings raise questions about potentially unexpected and unintended effects of social norms approaches.
KW - Alcohol
KW - Core alcohol and drug survey
KW - Drinking behavior
KW - Nationwide campuses study
KW - Social norms
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0141649340&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/07448480309596356
DO - 10.1080/07448480309596356
M3 - Article
C2 - 14510026
AN - SCOPUS:0141649340
VL - 51
SP - 238
EP - 245
JO - Journal of the American College Health Association
JF - Journal of the American College Health Association
SN - 0744-8481
IS - 6
ER -