Youth alcohol prevention that works Reducing youth alcohol use through Positive Community Norms in Minnesota Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division For more information contact: Minnesota Department of Human Services Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division P.O. Box 64977 St. Paul, MN 55164-0977 (651) 431-2460 Printed with a minimum of 10 percent post-consumer material. Please recycle. Table of contents Overview ................................................................................ 2 How it works .............................................................................................................................................. 5 Beliefs about teen alcohol use .................................................................................................................. 7 The Positive Community Norms Framework ............................................................................................ 9 Grants .................................................................................. 12 What they did .......................................................................................................................................... 15 Results ................................................................................. 17 Next steps ............................................................................ 19 Appendices .......................................................................... 20 Appendix A: The data .............................................................................................................................. 20 Appendix B: sample materials ................................................................................................................ 23 References ............................................................................................................................................... 25 Page 1 Positive Community Norms Overview Over the past ten years, 25 Minnesota school districts, funded with federal dollars and granted through the Department of Human Services, have participated in the Positive Community Norms framework in an effort to reduce youth alcohol use. Has it worked? Have the schools been able to reduce youth alcohol use? Yes. For example, from 2012 to 2016, in what was the second group of grantee school districts, the percentage of both middle school and high school students who had ever used alcohol went down significantly.1 Page 2 Positive Community Norms The 25 school districts consisted of two “cohorts,” each cohort receiving grant funding for five years. In the first cohort of schools from July 2004 to June 2010, Average 9th grade 30- day alcohol use fell during the grant period:2  2004: 35.5 percent of 9th graders used alcohol in the previous 30 days  2010: 22 percent of 9th graders used alcohol in the previous 30 days Perhaps just as significant is that alcohol use continued to drop after the grants were over.  2013: 14 percent of 9th graders used alcohol in the previous 30 days Between 2004 to 2013, in the first cohort of schools, 9th grade alcohol use in the previous 30 days went from 28.6 percent above the state average to 4.8 percent below average Page 3 Positive Community Norms Results were also similarly promising in the second cohort of schools. For schools using Positive Community Norms:  2010: 25.9 percent of 9th graders used alcohol in the previous 30 days.  2016: 17.2 percent of 9th graders used alcohol in the previous 30 days. Positive Community Norms framework, combined with the larger prevention planning and implementation grant programs and community engagement, is making a real, positive impact in the rates of youth alcohol use. Page 4 Positive Community Norms How it works The Positive Community Norms framework is based on “the Science of the Positive.” The Science of the Positive is the study of how positive factors impact culture and experience. It has been applied with agencies, communities and businesses, and it is based on the belief that emphasizing positive behaviors rather than possible negative consequences will be more effective in changing behavior.3 The Positive Community Norms framework uses the core principles of the Science of the Positive to grown positive norms through:  Leadership development  Communication strategies  Integration of prevention resources  Structured reflection. Page 5 Positive Community Norms Positive Community Norms cultivates cultural transformation by working on multiple community levels and factors at once. This framework has shown itself to be extremely effective in creating meaningful social change around health and safety issues including traffic safety, underage drinking, binge drinking, child maltreatment, and many others. In the case of underage alcohol use, research has found that youth generally greatly over-estimate alcohol and drug use among their peers. So rather than focusing on kids who are using alcohol and drugs, Positive Community Norms focuses on kids who are not. In other words, it’s what youth are doing right rather than what they are doing wrong. Positive Community Norms is the centerpiece to the Minnesota Department of Human Service’s prevention efforts to promote positive behavior change at the individual, family, school and community level. However, Positive Community Norms integrates multiple programs and policies as part of the department’s prevention planning and implementation grant programs. Across the state, these community programs offer a comprehensive and systemic approach to reducing youth alcohol use through school-based strategies as well as family, community and policy efforts. Positive Community Norms cultivates true, lasting cultural transformation by involving the students, parents, teachers and the entire community in understanding not just what’s concerning, but also what’s hopeful. Page 6 Positive Community Norms Beliefs about teen alcohol use Fundamental to the Positive Community Norms approach is to focus on the strategy of positive messaging. For example, in one school district, rather than focusing on the 13 percent of youth who drink at least monthly, Positive Community Norms presents the other, positive side: Perceptions of norms can be strong predictors of behavior. Experiments have shown that perceived norms influence a wide variety of behaviors including high-risk drinking,4 tobacco usage,5 impaired driving,6 bullying7 and more. A number of theories about behavior recognize that perceived norms can influence the decisions of individuals within that group. We are social beings who look for cues in our environments about how to think, act and belong. One way we search for these cues is by looking to the opinions and behaviors of others as well as those expressed in the media. As a result, if a person perceives that a certain behavior is a community norm, they may be more likely to engage in similar behavior. For example, if the parent believes that many or most parents allow their children to drink, they may be more likely to allow it themselves. By bringing forward messages about positive behaviors, rather than emphasizing negative behavior and inadvertently making that seem common or even attractive, Positive Community Norms brings the message forward that the positive is the norm.8 Positive Community Norms brings the message forward that “the positive” is the norm. Page 7 Positive Community Norms However, what if their perception of the community norm is inaccurate? In fact, this is commonly the case. From our previous example, how common is it for parents to allow their underage children to drink? In survey of parents of high school students in Minnesota, 92 percent said that they did not allow their child to drink alcohol. However, 84 percent of parents thought most parents of students in their child’s school allowed their children to drink.9 Therefore, even though the community norm may be to not allow one’s underage children to drink alcohol, parents’ perceptions that allowing their underage children is common, increases the likelihood that a parent would allow their teen to drink. Therefore, the work of promoting healthy behaviors involves more than just focusing on the positive; it must also include correcting misperceptions of norms. Positive Community Norms closes the gap between what we believe to be true (perceived norms) and what is actually true (actual norms). This is because we as a society tend to emphasize the problem to the point that it is easy to think that the problem is more common than it is. Page 8 Positive Community Norms