It's Everyone's Responsibility: Engaging the Community in Addressing Underage Drinking

Background:  Underage drinking is an issue of concern around the world. There is increasing evidence that social marketing campaigns can produce positive changes in drinking behaviours (Stead et al., 2007); and large-scale strategies to change perceived social norms around alcohol consumption have been used successfully to reduce alcohol consumption in other target groups including US university students (Wesley Perkins et al. 2005, 2006). However, such successful social marketing strategies have yet to be employed in Australia for the complex issue of underage drinking.

Program background:  The program reported in this paper aims to reduce the perceived normative nature of underage drinking and supply of alcohol to minors and, in the longer-term, reduce alcohol consumption among young people aged 12-17 years. The Kiama ‘Stop Underage Drinking Project’ includes: a youth component that incorporates a range of school and community-based activities; a parent component that includes online and environmental activities; and a community-wide social marketing campaign to alter social norms around underage drinking. The intervention commenced in October 2013, and ran for two years. Based on the findings from the baseline and formative research phases, the initial message execution focused on raising the salience of the message. The intervention messages subsequently transitioned through raising a question; issuing a call to action; and providing feedback on changes brought about by and within the community.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  A baseline CATI survey was conducted with 610 adults (parents of minors and community members); 397 of these were re-contacted for the mid-point evaluation at the end of year one. This evaluation found a significant reduction in perceptions of the percentage of young people in the community who are drinkers; 81% to 74% 18-year-olds (p=0.001), 54% to 47% of 16-year-olds (p=0.006), and 29% to 23% 14-year-olds (p=0.001). There was a significant reduction in the perceived acceptable age for allowing children to sip or taste alcohol (from a mean of 16.5 years to 16.1 years, p < 0.001; 95% CI for the difference 0.3-0.7), and a non-significant reduction in the perceived acceptable age for a weak or watered down drink of alcohol ( from 16.9 years to 16.8 years, p = 0.12; 95% CI for the difference 0.3-0.0). The final evaluation survey is being completed and findings will be incorporated into the conference presentation.

Conclusions:  While there is widespread recognition that adolescents’ drinking is strongly influenced by social norms, and increasing evidence that parents’ and other adults’ decisions to provide alcohol are likewise influenced, there are few published evaluations of interventions to address these norms at a community level. This mid-point evaluation data provides preliminary evidence that a whole-of-community social marketing intervention can address misperceptions about social norms and influence attitudes and behavioural intentions. 

Implications for research and/or practice:  Australia, like many countries, is currently observing declines in youth alcohol consumption – reversing the trend of the last two decades. While the reasons for this change are not clearly understood, it is timely for communities and governments to build on this positive trend by providing environments that support not drinking as an acceptable and normative behaviour for adolescents.