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CHARLOTTESVILLE — More than half of Virginia Tech students drink less than once a week.
More than 75 percent of students at Virginia Commonwealth University either don't drink or use designated drivers if they do.
And nearly two-thirds of undergraduates at the University of Virginia have five or fewer drinks per week.
The thought of college life may conjure images of beer pong, dizzying hangovers and questionable decision-making for many.
And research shows that students are influenced by perceptions, whether right or wrong, and tend to behave according to what they perceive to be normal.
But reality can be much different at campuses across Virginia and the country.
That's why officials are increasingly using social norms marketing to communicate information about how much and how often fellow students are using alcohol. It also spotlights the healthy and protective behaviors that others are demonstrating.
On campuses, this approach is used to dispel myths about alcohol consumption. Students are surveyed about their drinking
Related story: Programs promote peer education, dry nights
habits (how much and how often, for instance) and then the information is spread throughout campus using posters, in brochures or as part of orientation presentations.
The use of social norms research, which has been going on for about 24 years, is increasing.
Nearly half of 747 four-year colleges surveyed in a 2002 study reported having implemented a social norms campaign, according to a report from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Correcting misperceptions about alcohol use by fellow students
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can empower students, said Susan Bruce, director of the Center for Alcohol and Substance Education at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
"It makes them realize, 'I'm not the only person who doesn't drink or doesn't drink much," she said.
"It keeps them from feeling socially isolated. ... When you let people know the truth about how most people are behaving, you increase healthy behavior."
For students who are heavy drinkers, the information shows them that "not as many students drink as you might think. It gives them perspective," she said.
Clearing up myths
UVa student Jessica Brown, 21, thinks the social norms marketing information helps students see another side to college life.
"I think everyone sort of has the idea that when people go out they get drunk or drink to get drunk. And that's simply not true," said Brown, who is from Newington.
"You really don't have to get drunk every night in order to have friends or have fun here at school."
Why do misperceptions about alcohol use exist among students?
Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times
University of Virginia freshmen Alex Cooper and Madeline Sargent ride the late-night bus at 1 a.m. on a Friday night. UVa offers the extended-hours bus on Friday and Saturday nights from 12:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m.
Officials at UVa and Tech said it can be a combination of news coverage of alcohol-related tragedies on campuses that attract a lot of attention or from TV shows and movies, like the alcohol use portrayed in the 1978 comedy "Animal House" and the 2003 film "Old School."
Pop culture has tended to glamorize drinking without focusing on the negative consequences of it, said Dr. James Turner, executive director of the Department of Student Health and executive director of the National Social Norms Institute at UVa. The institute's work includes research, evaluation and distribution of information on the social norms approach.
A party setting is another place where students may develop misperceptions.
"Our brains are hard-wired to notice what is different," Bruce said.
Say a student goes to a party and notices a couple of people fighting or someone who is drunk and stumbling around. The student may focus on the extremes of the behaviors that night and "it's also not probably what most people are doing. Most people are not having problems," Bruce said.
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Or a student may assume at a party that all the people walking around with plastic cups are drinking alcohol. "What you don't know is that students may have one cup of punch or beer that they nurse all night long … or they fill it with water," Bruce said.
Another possible explanation for the assumptions is that students hear stories from alumni, siblings or friends about wild college experiences and expect that is what college will be like for them.
"We talk often about the funny things that happen with drinking. We don't usually talk about the negative things," Bruce said.
The social norms marketing approach is also a way to shine a light on the positive health behaviors that college students are engaging in when it comes to alcohol, said Jennifer Bauerle, director of the National Social Norms Institute .
"You share with them the truth of what is happening in their population," Bauerle said. "We know that a majority of our students behave in very responsible ways."
The survey says ...
At the University of Virginia, a student survey showed that 63.9 percent of the nearly 14,000 undergraduates consumed zero to five drinks the last time they partied
Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times
University of Virginia students hang copies of the Stall Seat Journal in bathroom stalls in UVa’s Newcomb Hall. The Stall Seat Journal contains facts about drinking, the social scene at UVa and upcoming events.
or socialized, with a median of three drinks.
The misperception from students was that the typical number of drinks was six, according to a 2008 health survey report at the university.
Also in the survey, 17.8 percent of students reported drinking six to 10 drinks per event. The perception from others was that it was 36.5 percent.
The survey also reflected that 16 percent of University of Virginia undergraduate students are abstainers, which are those who did not use alcohol in the past year, and 27 percent are nondrinkers, which are those who did not drink in the past month. The nondrinker group includes those who are abstainers.
The social norms marketing data from students comes from surveys that are conducted each February, Bauerle said. The surveys have been sent out since 1999.
Close to 5,800 students are randomly selected for the anonymous online surveys. The university gets an average response rate of about 50 percent, she said.
The results of the surveys are then communicated to students in campus campaigns, such as a poster series that goes up around
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the university grounds.
Another campaign uses an area that will have a captive audience — inside bathroom stalls.
It's called the Stall Seat Journal and it is a monthly poster series geared toward first-year students that is placed inside bathroom stalls in first-year dorms.
The posters include facts and statistics about alcohol, including the information gathered through the surveys, and tips on stress relief and relationships.
Brown is the student designer of the poster and her hope is that the posters help educate students, such as with facts about alcohol use or a free bus service that runs through campus and town until 2:30 a.m. on weekends during the school year.
Brown, who graduates in May, remembers reading the posters when she came to the university and believes they make an impact.
"I just thought it was great to have. It's nice to know that there is someone thinking about you when you are a first year and thinking about some of the kinds of situations that you're in," Brown said.
Virginia Tech started the social norms marketing approach in 2002 and surveys a random sample of undergraduate students
Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times
University of Virginia students (from left) Franziska Matiuk, 21, and Alex Mazakov, 21, Virginia Commonwealth University student Rick Headley, 20, and UVa student Hallie Eilerts, 18, talk and toss bean bags during the Foxfield Races. Safety tips concerning alcohol are spread throughout the campus before the event.
online every two to three years, said Steve Clarke, director of the Campus Alcohol Abuse Prevention Center at Virginia Tech. The next survey is this month.
About 2,000 surveys are sent out among 23,000 undergraduates. Tech typically receives about a 50 percent to 60 percent response rate to the anonymous surveys, Clarke said.
Responses from a 2007 survey indicate that 77 percent of students at Tech drink two or fewer times a week.
Also, the surveys have shown that 52 percent of students drink less than once a week, and 20 percent don't drink at all, Clarke said.
Information from the surveys is used on posters and shared during freshman orientation.
Efforts needed for heavy drinkers
While college officials say students overestimate the alcohol use of their classmates, they still recognize that there are students
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who are drinking excessively and dangerously.
Telling students what's really going on is an "important component of a comprehensive alcohol education program," Bruce said.
But she said campuses still need to address the hazardous drinking that some students engage in.
"Different initiatives will resonate with different students. For some, parental notification policies will have an impact, while for others being found responsible for a policy violation by a jury of their peers will moderate behaviors," Bruce said.
"Of course, some students will develop addictions, so campuses need to have systems in place to identify those students early in the disease progression, assist them in finding treatment, and get them back on track academically."
She said even if only 5 percent of students were drinking heavily, programs should be in place to assist them.
"All students need education on alcohol poisoning and how to handle an alcohol-related emergency, since the consequences of inaction can be deadly," she said.
One of the efforts some colleges in Virginia
and the nation have taken to address binge drinking by students is by signing the Amethyst Initiative.
The initiative is an effort launched in July 2008 that calls into question the wisdom of the legal drinking age of 21, asks for renewed public debate about it and invites new ideas about how to prepare young adults about alcohol.
University of Virginia President John Casteen has not signed the initiative.
He has said he doesn't know whether he will eventually sign the initiative and that "it depends on whether they are able to develop and publish the evidence to prove there's not a negative difference in the impact on young people. I'm not at this point persuaded that they have all their facts on the table."
Does the method work?
The University of Virginia started using social norms marketing in 1999, said Turner, who is also a professor of internal medicine.
Turner said he believes the approach is effective and he points to university data that ask students about alcohol-related consequences, such as injuries and driving under the influence.
Between 2001 and 2009, Turner said there has been an 83 percent drop in the probability of an injury related to alcohol, and an 81 percent reduction in the probability of driving under the influence.
The university randomly surveyed 5,000 undergraduates each year and had response rates of 35 percent to 54 percent, Turner said.
Turner said the results indicate that students are learning more responsible behaviors when it comes to alcohol and he believes social norms marketing plays a role in that.
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Clarke at Virginia Tech also sees benefits in the social norms marketing approach, especially when it is paired with a larger alcohol education program on campuses.
At Tech, there was a 60 percent decrease in the average number of high-risk drinking incidents among students from 1999 (with the average being 5.2 times per month) to 2007 (with the average being 2.1 times per month).
Turner said the social norms marketing approach also gives students information that helps them make better and safer decisions about drinking when they live in an atmosphere where alcohol is readily available.
"Ultimately, the reality is that students can access alcohol if they want to," Turner said. "It's our responsibility to alert them to ways that they can minimize their risk if they choose to use."
The Web site, www.virginia.edu/uvatoday contributed to this article.
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