When “Where” Matters More Than “What”: An Examination of the Interaction of Implementation and Community Level Contexts On Atod Prevention Program Efficacy

Several promising substance abuse prevention programs exist at the secondary school level; those with the most evidence of efficacy focus on promoting environmental change in schools, encouraging long term thinking about consequences of behavior, and improving decision making skills.  The social norms approach to alcohol, tobacco and other drug prevention incorporates these elements through a focus on improving student knowledge of peer behavior in order to correct misperceptions that will in turn improve personal decision making.  Utilizing research from Fetsinger’s social comparison theory, a social norms campaign addresses gaps between student perceptions and actual behavior; by correctly indicating that not “everyone is doing it,” this approach gives students meaningful comparisons for their own behavior. 

Research on the ability of a social norms campaign to reduce alcohol use has found the approach effective in studies at both the college and high school levels.  The current research addresses the ways in which this approach is successful within a broader community context.  Prior research has primarily focused on institutions with similar characteristics (i.e. a college campus).  The current study assesses the efficacy of a social norms program implemented over a five year period in twenty-seven diverse school communities within a northeastern state; each school implemented a social norms prevention campaign aimed at decreasing alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and other drug use.  Initial results were consistent with findings from other social norms programs; schools saw decreases in many of the targeted behaviors, including alcohol and tobacco use.  However, the current study also focuses on the ways in which school and community level factors moderated implementation and efficacy.

The present study allows us to fill in gaps in our knowledge of how school-based social norms programs can work within the larger community framework to have more of an impact on individual behavior and environmental norms.  While correcting behavioral misperceptions is possible in a variety of settings, it is important to understand under what circumstances implementation can be most effective.  The twenty-seven schools in this research comprise a representative sample of communities, including those that are severely economically and socially disadvantaged and those on the opposite end of spectrum.  Interactions between community and school level variables are examined to better understand how implementation and dosage can change student level behavior.