Da Kidz R all--Rite...
May 28, 2002
USA Today has a good article about how good our young people are actually doing. With all of the talk about teens and sex, you might actually walk away with the idea that our young people are actually some kind of uncontrolled rabble, drunk and amoral.
Nine out of every 10 college students have never damaged property because they were drunk or high. Three out of four have never blown an exam or school project because of drugs or alcohol. Ninety-nine percent of students who drink do not have unwanted sex.
Most kids don't go out and get trashed every night.
Each year, more students choose to abstain from alcohol. Fewer choose to smoke and do drugs.
Death by alcohol-related accidents or suicide is rare.
The widespread impression that the norm for today's young people is drunken debauchery simply isn't true. Most kids are OK. It's the best-kept secret on college campuses, and a growing number of experts believe that keeping all this good news quiet is doing far more harm than good.
Parents are often the most unaware, and they fear the worst when they send kids off to college, says Michael Haines, a substance-abuse expert at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. Students today take very seriously the risks of drinking, he says, ''yet parents are being sold a bill of goods, with kids portrayed in number-crunching stories as drunken, reckless, careless boozers.''
Haines is the father of a grassroots movement among prevention educators called ''social norming,'' and it's gaining fast favor on college campuses. The premise is quite simple, but completely at odds with today's accepted practice of scaring teens away from risky behaviors.
Social norming operates on this notion: If the general impression is that most kids don't drink alcohol, then those who do drink will drink less, and fewer will start drinking in the first place. The key is to not over-report the incidences of dangerous drinking that occur, and to broadly promote the general good health of students so that it is perceived as normal not to drink.
I actually had read only a passing reference to social norming months ago, but didn't really know that much about it. I'm actually surprised, and pleased, to see it being used across college campuses. I found a few links to reports on the subject here and here. (Do a Yahoo search to find more.) Working in public health you forget that the majority of young people do well and enter into society as healthy as possible. Having changed assignments within my own agency, I've actually been surprised at how well we actually do in keeping kids safe and providing something approaching a normal life for them.)
There are always problems -- it's obvious that we can do a much better job in educating around young people and sex -- but we need to pat ourselves on the back at how well we've been able to do at ensuring health and safety for not only our young people but for the general population as well.
But hey, we can always do more. What kind of liberal would I be if I didn't beleive that?
A Republican....
:^)
Afterthought: With the early, apparent success of using such a model to reinforce healthy behavior in college students, perhaps something similar can be done for high-school students as well? I need to do a little more research to see longitudinally how well this model is doing, but it would be great to try and apply its principles to other, targeted populations. Research grant! Doctoral dissertation!
Posted by Jody at May 28, 2002 10:40 AM