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New
norms campaign targets student misperceptions about drinking:
First-of-a-kind breathalyzer study finds that 2 out of 3 UNC-CH students
return home with no alcohol in their systems
story
contents: introduction
| sharing the facts | using
breathalyzers | getting the word out
2 out of 3, .00 BAC logo |
Introduction
Eighteen-year-old Necie Basinger said she was "really surprised" when
she heard that two out of three students at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill return home with no alcohol in their blood streams
on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
"I had this stereotypical picture of college as major parties and everything,"
the UNC-CH freshman from Kannapolis, N.C., said. "I guess it went against
all that."
Aaron Trammell, an 18-year-old UNC-CH freshman from Salisbury, N.C.,
had similar ideas about college and drinking.
"At first I was a little surprised because I figured everybody would
pretty much go wild when they weren't around their parents, but then
I was kinda relieved. Peer pressure can be pretty intense," he said.
"It's kinda scary because you don't know what you'll do in a situation.
But if the majority of students don't drink, you kind of feel like you
would fit in more on the side choosing not to drink."
A norms campaign launched this fall by the UNC Highway Safety Research
Center is working toward changing the skewed student perception of how
much UNC students drink. It is the second phase of an ongoing HSRC study
involving the use of breathalyzers to measure student alcohol use. Sponsored
by the UNC-CH Student Affairs Division, the campaign is based on breathalyzer
data collected from students in the fall of 1997.
"We're using a variety of methods to share the true norm with students
so that we can relieve any pressure students may feel to live up to
a norm that isn't accurate," Project Co-director Lauren Marchetti said.
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Sharing the facts
Primarily aimed at freshman, the campaign uses posters, stickers, a
web site and financial rewards handed out by a "prize patrol" to spread
the word that 66 percent of students returning home on any given Thursday,
Friday or Saturday night have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of
.00%. The slogan for the campaign is "2 out of 3 .00 BAC."
Marchetti said they chose to focus on the data from Thursday, Friday
and Saturday nights because those are the evenings that students typically
think of as "party nights." The number of students returning home with
no alcohol in their bloodstream is actually higher on Sunday, Monday,
Tuesday and Wednesday nights ( 86 percent) or when all nights of the
week are considered (72 percent).
"We didn't want to give students any reason to dismiss the data," said
Kathy Holladay who coordinated the data collection effort. "We didn't
want them to be able to say, well, you were only out collecting data
on Monday nights at 7 o'clock when nobody's drinking."
Following the campaign, HSRC researchers plan to collect more breathalyzer
data to determine whether student drinking patterns have changed.
Funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the
North Carolina Governor's Highway Safety Program, the breathalyzer study
is a new approach to preventing excessive drinking as well as drinking
and driving, Marchetti said.
"This is really an attempt to get at the root of the drinking and driving
problem," she said. "This is saying, let's back up and create opportunities
for people to choose not to be in the position to have to decide whether
to drink and drive or not. I think both agencies are being very progressive;
the benefits of a project such as this can extend well beyond the area
of highway safety."
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Using breathalyzers
In collecting the initial project data in the fall of 1997, HSRC researchers
interviewed students as they returned home for the evening to fraternities,
sororities, residence halls and off-campus apartment complexes. Over
a six-week period, 1,846 students were interviewed. Of those, 97 percent,
or 1,790 students, voluntarily provided breath-alcohol measurements.
Data were collected all nights of the week between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m.
The project marks the first time in the United States that researchers
have obtained breath measurements from college students to study collegiate
drinking. Previous studies have relied on self-reported data such as
questionnaire surveys where students recollect their drinking behavior.
"There are limitations with those surveys," Project Co-director Dr.
Robert Foss said. "Humans are not good at reporting precisely what happened
two weeks ago and alcohol is unique in that once you've had a couple
of drinks, your perceptions and memory can begin to fade on you. I am
convinced that what students report is influenced by what they think
is the social norm."
One significant study finding is that student perceptions of the drinking
norm on campus aren't very accurate. Students who had been drinking
heavily the night they were interviewed (5 or more drinks) clearly misperceived
the norm. Although just 14 percent of students fit into the "heavy drinking"
category on any given evening, a large majority of these students felt
that they drank "the same" or "less" than the typical UNC student. On
the other hand, students who had a zero BAC the night they were interviewed
had similar misperceptions about the norm on campus. Although 72 percent
of students came home with a zero BAC on any given evening — clearly
the majority — three-quarters of this group felt that they drank "less"
than the typical UNC student.
"It's pretty much universal that people perceive there's much more drinking
going on than there really is," Foss said. "People who don't drink much
think they drink a lot less than the typical student and people who
drink a bundle think they're pretty typical and that's just wrong."
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Getting the word out
Freshmen first learned the HSRC breathalyzer study results in August
at the university's orientation sessions. Freshman are required to attend
these sessions and many parents attend as well. Parents seemed relieved
to hear the results. Many broke into applause at the news.
"We were excited to have an opportunity to talk to parents because we
realized that the misperception that everybody's drinking' is subtly
conveyed even by well-intentioned people," Marchetti said. "If a parent
says to their student going off to college: ‘I don't care if everybody
else is drinking. I don't want you drinking,' that suggests that the
parent is buying into the idea that ‘everybody's drinking.'"
"Ideally, parents would have a different message that would be ‘Don't
tell me everybody's drinking. Two out of three students aren't.'" Marchetti
said. "We all need to rethink the impression we're giving in what we
say."
2 out 3 posters |
When freshman checked
into residence halls this fall, another part of the campaign was kicked
off. There, they were given posters with the "2 out of 3" message on
it and told they had a chance of winning $50 if they had it posted in
their room when the "prize patrol" made one of their weekly rounds.
The poster shows a night scene of Chapel Hill's main street with students
strolling down the sidewalk and chatting outside shops. A cinema marquee
overhead reads: "2 out of 3 UNC students return home with a .00 BAC."
Other poster text reads: "It's not what they say, it's what they blow"
and "Most of those who drink have 4 or less."
The campaign offers other opportunities to win cash. By knowing the
2 out of 3 fact when they are stopped by the prize patrol, students
can win a dollar. If they have one of the campaign stickers on anything
they are carrying when stopped, they win $5. The stickers were distributed
at Fall Fest, the university's alcohol-free back-to-school celebration,
and are being given out at student bookstore check-out counters. Weekly
prize winners have their pictures posted on the project's web site at
www.hsrc.unc.edu/publicaware/2outof3 .
"We've found that a lot of students know the 2 out of 3 fact," said
Project Coordinator Chad Sattler, a member of the prize patrol.
In fact, during the fourth week of the campaign, one or more students
in nine of the 12 groups of students stopped by the prize patrol, either
knew the fact or had the sticker on something they had with them.
Part of the program's success is its direct approach, Sattler said.
"It's not preachy," he said. "The students are just given the facts.
We're not telling them how to behave."
Both the program and the study have drawn national interest for their
creative approach. Rather than focusing on alcohol risks, the campaign
zeros in on getting students to understand that drinking is not as common
as many believe. And rather than relying on self-reported data, the
project uses more accurate breathalyzer data.
"We're the only university in the country that has precise BAC data,"
Marchetti said. "We're working with the actual numbers that the kids
blew when they were returning home in the evening. I think that gives
our message credibility."
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