Using Simulation in a Dangerous-Drinking Prevention Campaign

Abstract

The Advanced Health Communication (AHC) Simulation models a subdivision of an actual campus organization, the Communication and Health Issues Partnership for Education and Research (CHI). To address dangerous drinking at Rutgers University, CHI created a dangerous-drinking prevention campaign, RU SURE? and designed the AHC simulation for students to participate centrally in the campaign. The simulation was incorporated into an advanced course in health communication. The three major sets of activities in the AHC simulation are (a) the design and pilot testing of campaign messages and materials, (b) the implementation of the campaign, and (c) the evaluation of the campaign. The simulation provides a structure in which students learn about a set of behavioral processes regarding campaign design and organizational behavior on the macrolevel while learning about their drinking-related behaviors on the microlevel. Participants reported learning about working in a complex organization, designing and implementing a prevention campaign, and decreasing their own drinking-related perceptions and behaviors.

In the Eye of the Beholder: Alcohol Use and Perceptions Among Student-Patrons of ‘Joints’ in Three Nigerian University Communities

“…In other words, intervention are not likely to be very successful if stakeholders are unable to step into the shoes of children/student alcohol users, understand their world and appreciate the meaning it portends for them. In consonance with Abikoye and Adekoya's (2010) submission, we opine that psycho-educational and skillbuilding programmes, based on the socially-situated experiential learning model (Lederman, Stewart, Barr, & Perry 2001) could be used to reduce excessive alcohol consumption by university students. The socially situated experiential learning model assumes that substance use among students is a shared reality learned through drinking-related experiences, stories shared among students, perceptions and many misperceptions of the behaviours and expectancies of one another.…”

Predicting Substance Abuse in a Sample of Nigerian Undergraduate Students: The Role of Core Self-evaluations and Delay of Gratification

“…Psycho-educational and skill-building programmes, based on the socially situated experiential learning model (Lederman et al 2001) should be put in place for university students. Although the focus of this study was the roles of delay of gratification and core self-evaluations in substance abuse among university students, it is worth noting that the application of norm-based interventions in small group settings have been successfully used to reduce alcohol consumption in high-risk situations (Barnett et al 1996;Peeler et al 2000).…”

An Innovative Dialogue about College Drinking: Developing an Immediate Response Technology Model for Health Promotion

“…Communicatively constructed myths of excessive student drinking persist despite the numerous studies that find dangerous drinking is not the norm on all college campuses (Berkowitz & Perkins, 1986;Lederman & Stewart, 2005;Perkins, 2002). Misperceptions of others' drinking have been found to be a source of pressure to engage in dangerous drinking (Berkowitz & Perkins, 1986;Haines & Spear, 1996;Lederman, Stewart, Barr, & Perry, 2001;Lederman & Stewart, 2005). These misperceptions about alcohol use by peers tend to increase with increasing social distance (Baer, Stacy, & Larimer, 1991).…”