How do college students view alcohol prevention policies?Journal of Substance Use, Volume 12, Issue 6 December 2007 , pages 447 - 460
Despite research supporting comprehensive community prevention strategies, there has been relatively less done in the way of policy-orientated approaches to prevention on college campuses, in the face of powerful appeals to do so.
Among the likely reasons for this state of affairs is that college administrations are cautious about adopting new alcohol policies because of a general belief that such policies are held in very low favor among the students themselves. The sense that most alcohol policies will be met with universal opposition is largely unexamined, however, and it is entirely possible that student attitudes regarding alcohol polices are worthy of investigation in themselves.
The data reported here were collected via a mailed survey of a random sample of undergraduate students from the University of California. The questionnaire included a set of twenty alcohol problem prevention policies that were described as among those some college campuses have adopted or are thinking of adopting. Data were collected from 1648 students, with the sample comprising 33% Asians, 30% Whites, 14% multi-ethnic, 11% Hispanics, 5% African-Americans, and 6% other.
In all cases, the students' approval is higher than their perception of their peers' level of approval, particularly for "enforcement" policies. What we found was a universal tendency to underestimate support for prevention policies, particularly those with some "teeth" to them.
Among the likely reasons for this state of affairs is that college administrations are cautious about adopting new alcohol policies because of a general belief that such policies are held in very low favor among the students themselves. The sense that most alcohol policies will be met with universal opposition is largely unexamined, however, and it is entirely possible that student attitudes regarding alcohol polices are worthy of investigation in themselves.
The data reported here were collected via a mailed survey of a random sample of undergraduate students from the University of California. The questionnaire included a set of twenty alcohol problem prevention policies that were described as among those some college campuses have adopted or are thinking of adopting. Data were collected from 1648 students, with the sample comprising 33% Asians, 30% Whites, 14% multi-ethnic, 11% Hispanics, 5% African-Americans, and 6% other.
In all cases, the students' approval is higher than their perception of their peers' level of approval, particularly for "enforcement" policies. What we found was a universal tendency to underestimate support for prevention policies, particularly those with some "teeth" to them.
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