For youth, perception is reality when it comes to fitting in with their peers. So, finding out that everybody isn’t doing it…is huge!
Fact or fiction? Most teens are not drinking.
FACT. The message that most teens are not drinking was given loud and clear to over 100 middle school students at the fourth annual Upper Bucks Youth Summit held at the Upper Bucks YMCA on May 13, 2010.
Sponsored by the Upper Bucks Healthy Communities Healthy Youth (UBHCHY) Coalition, the event gathered middle school students from Palisades, Pennridge and Quakertown school districts to celebrate their efforts and share results of their social norms campaigns.
The social norms campaigns spread the word in schools and throughout peer circles that most teens do not drink alcohol on a regular basis. The campaigns highlight the fact that the vast majority of Upper Bucks teens have not had a drink in the past 30 days. This was a finding of the most recent biannual youth survey conducted in Fall of 2009.
“It’s a pretty solid measure, since regular alcohol use is defined as within the last 30 days,” said Lee Rush, executive director of justCommunity.
The UBHCHY Coalition conducts the survey for 8th, 10th and 12th graders every two years. It asks youth about their relationships with friends and family, and about their views on current issues they’re facing. Without accurate information, some youth tend to follow the crowd, or what they perceive to be the norm. And most times, they overestimate the number of their peers who drink.
Social norms campaigns in the schools are led by ‘street teams’ of students using creative ways to engage others in thinking about where they fall in the underage drinking statistics. For example, in one school teams placed magnets on lockers with the message: “Are you part of the 88’s?” to drive home the fact that 88% of 8th graders (from that particular middle school) don’t drink.
A highlight of the summit was a talk given by keynote speaker Cliff Crosby. Cliff was a member of the 1999 St. Louis Rams Super Bowl championship team. He shared a motivational message on making positive decisions. When youth hear a sports celebrity use their notoriety in a positive way, the message can have a greater impact than when it comes from a parent, teacher or friend.
During the summit, youth participated in workshops on preventing underage drinking and on team building skills. Many anti-drug initiatives have focused on no or don’t. Here youth are the messengers, promoting the message that the majority of teens make the right choices most of the time.
