Alcohol-related harms in the North West are higher than the England average and Sefton reports high levels of alcohol-specific admission among those aged under 18 (149 per 100,000; 2005-2007), well above the regional average (122 per 100,000). Alcohol abuse by those under 18 has numerous associated harms (violence, injury, sexual abuse, impaired intellectual development and under-achievement at schools) and clearly this situation requires swift attention. Reframing social norms is one such approach. Social norms refer to what is perceived to be normal, accepted and negotiated behaviour and reframing of these norms offers the chance to, in the case of alcohol, revise maladaptive drinking perceptions and consequently behaviours. In light of this Sefton PCT commissioned the Centre for Public Health to investigate prevailing attitudes and norms in young people and to evaluate a social norms based intervention.
The campaign and accompanying evaluation were divided into two phases. The first phase was delivered in schools in 2009 amongst 14-16 year olds. The results showed that participants tended to overestimate the consumption of their peers and that the intervention may have helped, in part, to dissolve the link between own drinking and perceptions of peers’ consumption. Phase two was delivered in a further education college with 18-24 year olds. Interim findings showed an inconsistency between own and estimates of peers’ drinking, detailed drinking harms (unprotected sex), safety precautions (leaving drinks unattended) and acceptable drinking behaviours.
This is the final report in the series examining changes in consumption and perceptions since the campaign. The evaluation employed online questionnaires at two time points. The pre-intervention survey included topics such as: quantities; frequencies of own and peer consumption; harms; perceptions of acceptable behaviours; sources of alcohol information; alcohol advertisements seen; and parental attitudes/awareness. Based on the interim findings, a social norms campaign was designed (called “Drink it’s not what you think”) and delivered through posters, fliers, health days and tutorials. The post-intervention campaign followed the same format as the pre-intervention, with an additional section evaluating the awareness of the campaign materials. From a potential sample of 3,000, 484 completed the pre-intervention (16%), 275 (9%) completed the post; 85 completed both the pre-and postsurvey and could be matched. Statistical analysis was conducted on the pre and post survey sample and the matched pair sample.
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