Project List

PRSP

The Personal Report of Student Perceptions (PRSP): A Drug and Alcohol Survey was created to collect quantitative data to validate focus group data gathered in the 1990’s at Rutgers . The survey was conceived as a measure to examine student perceptions of normative drinking behaviors among college students and how these perceptions differ from actual drinking practices.

The survey was developed using questions previously incorporated in the 1987 Rutgers Student Alcohol and Drug Survey, relevant questions selected from the Campus Survey of Alcohol and Other Drug Norms (CORE), and newly developed questions to assess students' drinking behaviors and perceptions.

The survey was mailed to a random sample of 5,000 students enrolled at the New Brunswick and Newark Campuses of Rutgers University. Surveys were administered in Spring 1998 and Spring 2000.

Model Mentoring Program

CHI is based on a collaborative model that involves health educators, counselors, research faculty, and graduate students. In 1998, CHI began a mentoring project with Grand Valley State University in Michigan and with a branch of the University, Rutgers-Newark. Grand Valley State received a U.S. Department of Education models program award, in part, based on a the program CHI helped develop.

Imagine That!

WHAT IS IT?

Imagine That! is a Simulation Game of Drinking-Related Choices created by Linda C. Lederman, Ph. D. Rutgers University*

WHY WAS IT CREATED?

Imagine That! is an outgrowth of research on alcohol use conducted at Rutgers University from 1988-91. The research indicated that disseminating information about alcohol use is simply not enough to change students' alcohol-related attitudes and behaviors. Students need to be provided with a way to personalize the information. For this reason, a simulation game was designed.

OBJECTIVES

· To allow participants to make choices concerning familiar alcohol-related situations they may encounter.

· To provide participants with an experience that enables them to learn about themselves and the choices that they make.

· To discuss and explain participants' alcohol-related choices.

· To engage participants in a reflection on the possible real-life consequences relating to choices made during the game through the discussion of those choices.

PLAY OF THE GAME
The game simulates a college weekend. A series of scenarios are read to the participants. After each scenario, they are asked to decide which one of three options best represent what they think would really do in the situation.

Participants who make the same decision are grouped together to discuss their decision. Each group selects a representative to try to persuade others to re-think their decisions and abandon their original positions.

After representatives have presented their choices, participants have the opportunity to remake their decision. Everyone has the option to make the same decision again or to switch to the group they feel most represents what they would do. Participants collect chips for each decision they make.

RISK ASSESSMENT

There are no right or wrong answers in the game, but there are differential levels of risk. Based on the decisions made during IMAGINE THAT! a risk assessment profile is created for participants.

AFTER THE GAME IS OVER
The game is followed by a debriefing session in which participants are led through a self-reflective process that encourages them to see the connections between the game and their real-life decision-making.

Previous Projects

RU AWARE?

THE ISSUE

Getting college students to learn about the realities associated with excessive drinking is a challenge facing many colleges and universities today. To achieve this end, students participating in the semester-long Lindlee Enterprises organizational simulation designed the RU Aware? campaign. Before designing the campaign, the students first learned about excessive alcohol use.

DESCRIPTION

This case study describes the use of an organizational simulation to provide increased awareness of alcohol use among a population - college students - for whom traditional non-experiential methods have not proved successful. The study describes the simulation and traces the exposure of students to alcohol-related information and experiences as they worked in the simulation to produce and deliver an alcohol awareness campaign for other students.

CONTRIBUTIONS

The research upon which this paper is based was funded in part by a grant from U.S. Department of Education, Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE) and is based on contributions made to earlier drafts by Robert Homeyer, Adrienne DiMartini, and Cynthia Rohde, Rutgers University, and Michael Goodstadt, Toronto, Canada. For a copy of this research, contact Linda Lederman at linda.lederman@asu.edu.

RU LESS

HISTORY & BACKGROUND

In the spring semester, 1997, Dr. Linda C. Lederman and her Health Communication Class designed the health campaign, LESS, which addressed the issue of excessive college drinking. The campaign was based on a harm-reduction model, which suggests a slow modification of behavior to reduce risk. The campaign was designed to provide students with behavioral choices, rather than telling them what to do.

The acronym "LESS" therefore came from the assumption of:
LESS Risky + LESS Harmful + LESS Alcohol = List of Experienced Students’ Suggestions

CAMPAIGN

The campaign originated during a class exercise where Dr. Lederman asked students to interview their classmates using an interview form. Dr. Lederman observed that the interview form functioned as the students’ "permission" to approach their classmates without worrying about what these classmates originally thought of them; much like a drink in the hand often enables these same students to interact during a party setting.

After the class exercise, Dr. Lederman and the students discussed this similarity. Based on this discussion, Dr. Lederman determined that many of these students’ anecdotes about how they avoid dangerous drinking could be used as strategies for incoming college students who often feel pressured to drink in excess to "fit in."

FIELDWORK

The students participated in a fieldwork project, in which most people took a participant-observer’s perspective during two nights out on a weekend. The students were to enter a social situation where alcohol was being consumed. During the two evenings, they participated in festivities, while choosing not to drink in excess. They also observed the extent to which other individuals would encourage these students to drink excessively.

The students used one or more strategies, such as verbal explanations or physical actions, to resist peer pressure to drink excessively. The students observed how others reacted to these strategies, and which worked the best. Other students conducted research about the consumption of alcohol on college campuses in order to gain insight into successes and failures of other alcohol abuse programs around the country.

STRATEGIES

In the next phase of the project, Dr. Lederman separated the class into groups to discuss the strategies each person utilized and to learn which worked the best. Some of these strategies included:

1. Drink the alternatives (e.g., soda, water, juice)

2. Be the designated driver

3. Dance

4. Spill out some of your drink

5. Play games such as darts and billiards

6. Be honest and say no

7. Go to the party late

8. Try other social activities

9. Drink from smaller cups

10. Nurse your drink

11. Tell your friends you need to be alert for the following day

12. Use the buddy system (hang out with people who do not drink excessively)

13. Alternate between alcoholic drinks and the alternatives

14. Avoid hard liquor

15. Be the bartender

R emember,
U can drink L.E.S.S. by…
W aiting between drinks
I nteracting with friends
S ipping drinks
E ating more, drinking L.E.S.S.
R emembering it’s your choice!

DISSEMINATION

One group of students were in charge of outlining the purpose and history of the project. Another group proposed an idea for an improvisational acting troupe that could act out scenarios illustrating how the strategies could be used in social settings. They also developed ideas of possible scenarios. A PSA (public service announcement) was created to use on local radio stations. Another group designed logos that utilized the acronym, RU WISER, to accompany dissemination of the strategies developed to avoid excessive alcohol consumption.

The Center for Communication and Health Issues