A randomized test of a small-group interactive social norms intervention

Abstract

Social norms interventions are a common approach to addressing the problem of college student drinking. An increasingly popular but not yet well-validated social-norms-based intervention consists of providing normative feedback to students in small groups.

Objective, participants, and methods: In this study, the authors used a randomized design to test an interactive form of small-group social norms correction with 502 first-year students during September and October 2001. Because the unit of random assignment was at the level of the classroom, the authors used hierarchical linear modeling to estimate variability. They investigated whether small-group interactive social norms correction could influence alcohol perceptions and behaviors above and beyond a noninteractive social norms education approach.

Results: Results indicate that the approach has a fairly substantial influence on student perceptions; however, the findings do not support an influence of interactive small-group social norms correction on measures of alcohol use behaviors.

Conclusions: Given these findings, the use of interactive small-group social norms approach to influence student misperceptions may be considered as a primer for population-level preventive interventions.