Live interactive group-specific normative feedback reduces misperceptions and drinking in college students: A randomized cluster trial.

Abstract

This research evaluated the efficacy of a live and interactive group-specific normative feedback intervention designed to correct misperceptions of alcohol-related group norms and subsequently reduce drinking behavior. Campus organizations (N = 20) containing 1,162 college students were randomly assigned to intervention or assessment-only control conditions. Participants in the intervention condition attended an intervention during their organization's regular standing meeting. Data were gathered in vivo using computerized handheld keypads into which participants entered personal responses to a series of alcohol-related questions assessing perceptions of normative group behavior as well as actual individual behavior. These data were then immediately presented in graphical form to illustrate discrepancies between perceived and actual behavioral group norms. Results indicated that compared with the control group, the intervention group reduced drinking behavior and misperceptions of group norms at 1-month and 2-month followups. Changes in perceived norms mediated the reductions in drinking. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of a novel, technologically advanced, group-based, brief alcohol intervention that can be implemented with entire groups at relatively low cost. Keywords NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptIn response to the multitude of negative consequences resulting from heavy drinking (Hingson, Heeren, Winter, & Wechsler, 2005;Wechsler, Lee, Kuo, & Lee, 2000), many college campuses in the United States have initiated individual and group-based interventions with student drinkers (Larimer, Cronce, Lee, & Kilmer, 2004). Recently, interventions that seek to correct students' misperceptions about the alcohol use of their peers have emerged. These interventions, using the social norms approach to college drinking (Perkins, 2003), appear promising and have resulted in significant reductions in heavy episodic alcohol consumption and alcohol consequences at a number of institutions across the country (e.g., DeJong et al., 2006;Neighbors, Larimer, & Lewis, 2004;Perkins & Craig, 2006).Social influences are among the strongest and most consistent predictors of heavy drinking in the college environment (Borsari & Carey, 2003;Perkins, 2002). The social norms approach to college drinking asserts that misperceptions of how members of one's social group think and act (incorrectly perceived norms) influence behavior (Perkins & Berkowitz, 1986). During college, peers influence alcohol use both directly (i.e., explicit suggestions to drink) and indirectly (i.e., perceived norms). Overestimations of heavy drinking may increase drinking, whereas underestimations of abstinence or moderate drinking may discourage individuals from engaging in those healthier behaviors. A recent study of college students (N = 76,145) revealed that they consistently held exaggerated misperceptions of school drinking norms, regardless of the actual school norm (Perkins, Haines, & Rice, 2005). Thus, p...

Reliance on God, Prayer, and Religion Reduces Influence of Perceived Norms on Drinking

“…Personalized normative feedback alone has also been shown to measurably reduce drinking among heavy drinkers for up to 2 years (Neighbors et al, , 2010. Group-based live interactive norms feedback has also been effective in reducing groupspecifi c normative misperceptions and subsequent drinking (Killos et al, 2010;LaBrie et al, 2008). The present results suggest that incorporation of content related to religious values may be a useful addition to existing intervention approaches, particularly with individuals whose current drinking behavior is discrepant from their religious values.…”

Evaluating Level of Specificity of Normative Referents in Relation to Personal Drinking Behavior

“…Recent research by LaBrie and colleagues indicates realtime normative feedback provided to group members using in-person interactive polling is associated with reduced group-specifi c normative misperceptions and subsequent drinking among fraternity/sorority members in addition to services-group members (LaBrie et al, 2008) and athletes (LaBrie et al, 2009). Future research could evaluate the extent to which effects of group-specifi c feedback are maintained over time or in different implementation formats (i.e., Web, mailed).…”

Descriptive Drinking Norms: For Whom Does Reference Group Matter?

“…Moreover, interventions have targeted group-specifi c normative misperceptions, including gender-specifi c norms Neighbors, 2004, 2007;Thombs et al, 2005), freshman-specifi c norms , and fraternity/sorority-specifi c norms (LaBrie et al, 2008). These efforts demonstrated that group-specifi c perceptions infl uence individuals' behavior, and thus, targeting these norms can assist in reducing drinking.…”

“…Research has shown that fraternity membership is a strong predictor of frequency of heavy drinking (Wechsler et al, 1995) for both alcohol-experienced and alcohol-naive beginning college students (Lo and Globetti, 1995). Overestimations of fraternity/sorority-specifi c drinking have been documented and have been shown to associate with individual drinking rates (Bartholow et al, 2003;Larimer et al, 1997Larimer et al, , 2004, and correction of fraternity/sorority-specifi c perceived norms have mediated reductions in drinking during intervention (LaBrie et al, 2008).…”

“…A variety of interventions focus on reducing overestimations of drinking norms, and research has generally supported effi cacy of interventions using personalized normative feedback (i.e., provision of accurate information contrasting perceived and actual descriptive drinking norms with participant's own drinking behavior) as an effi cacious college drinking intervention, alone or in combination with other prevention components (Carey et al, 2007;Larimer and Cronce, 2007;Walters and Neighbors, 2005). Furthermore, reductions in perceived descriptive norms have been shown to mediate effi cacy of these interventions (Borsari and Carey, 2000;LaBrie et al, 2008;Neighbors et al, 2004;Wood et al, 2007).…”