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Alcohol |
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Hobart and William Smith Colleges Professor Notes Serious Flaws in Recent Harvard Study on Alcohol Use and Abuse on College Campuses - H. Wesley Perkins, dubbed the "father of social norms" by the Los Angeles Times, argues that the recently released study of college alcohol use and abuse conducted by Harvard University's Henry Wechsler is seriously flawed.
"In Henry Wechsler's latest article and press release he attempts to challenge the growing evidence in support of the social norms approach to substance abuse prevention with a so called 'national evaluation of social norms marketing' on college campuses," said Perkins. "But he failed dramatically."
Perkins noted that Wechsler first provided a biased and limited review of the research literature. He ignored controlled experiments where providing normative feedback about the majority of students exhibiting moderate or healthy behavior and holding responsible attitudes has lead to reductions in problem drinking. He also ignored the most recent compendium of case studies on college campuses that fully adopted the model with great success, edited by Perkins, titled "The Social Norms Approach to Preventing Substance Abuse in School and College Age Substance Abuse" (Jossey-Bass, 2003). |
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Poll finds overwhelming support for legislative ban on open containers - Montana voters strongly back a law to ban open containers of alcoholic beverages in motor vehicles, a recent statewide poll commissioned by the Montana Contractors Association for a coalition of groups shows. |
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Beverage and Nutrition |
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OPI Report–2002 Beverage Consumption Pilot Study - In December 2001, the Department of Health and Human Development at Montana State University–Bozeman was contracted by the Montana Office of Public Instruction, Health Enhancement and Safety Division, to conduct baseline research and pilot test a survey instrument for the development of a social norms marketing approach to promote healthful beverages among middle school youth in Montana schools. The Montana Team Nutrition Program and the Montana Social Norms Project, both in MSU's Department of Health and Human Development, partnered for this project to meet the following objectives in one or more Montana schools:
•assess actual versus perceived behaviors concerning beverage consumption among the target audience, and
•partially develop the informational messages and delivery plan.
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Practitioner’s Tools |
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The Main Frame - The social norms field recognizes the need to create a new frame for
public health issues-i.e., one that is based upon sound social science,
accuracy in reporting and positive messages. While there are many
resources available that discuss how to generate news, there have been
no guides to cultivating press coverage using the social norms approach.
The Main Frame: Strategies for Generating Social Norms News is the
first resource to provide social norms practitioners with advice on
generating news coverage and shifting the public debate when it comes to
issues of health and safety. The Main Frame is intended to be an ongoing
collection of the efforts of social norms interventions to create press
coverage. As projects receive more coverage, the guide will grow and
undergo revisions to reflect the successes and challenges encountered.
In this way, it can serve as a compendium of the experiences members of
social norms projects have in creating press coverage. |
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Copyright © 2002-2008 MOST of Us. All rights reserved.
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