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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Social Norms Information for Alcohol Misuse in University and College Students

About this resource:

Systematic Review

Source: The Cochrane Collaborative

Last Reviewed: December 2015

Workgroups: Substance Use Workgroup

In this Cochrane systematic review, the Cochrane Collaborative found that social norms interventions to prevent alcohol misuse in college students have no substantial benefits. These interventions include giving students web-based, face‐to‐face, and mailed feedback, as well as implementing general social norms marketing campaigns on college campuses. Though researchers found that the interventions have a small effect on how much students drink, they concluded that the effect sizes are too small to be relevant.

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Objectives related to this resource (2)

Reduce the proportion of people under 21 years who engaged in binge drinking in the past month — SU‑09
Little or no detectable change
Reduce the proportion of people aged 21 years and over who engaged in binge drinking in the past month — SU‑10
LHI label
Little or no detectable change

Suggested Citation

1.

Foxcroft, D.R., Moreira, M.T., Almeida Santimano, N.M.L. & Smith, L.A. (2015). Social norms information for alcohol misuse in university and college students. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2015 (12). DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006748.pub4.