Study finds scare tactics don’t help to reduce consumption

Posted July 27th, 2009

The Student Life Education Company has been a leader across Canada in the promotion of risk-preventative, healthy, proactive decision-making for youth, especially in the area of alcohol consumption. Unlike most orthodox social messaging organizations in the area of alcohol consumption, we recognize that some students will experiment. Rather than scaring them out of risky behaviour, we give students the tools and knowledge to help them make the right decisions if they find themselves in potentially risky situations.

A large study released recently by the Cochrane Library 2009 attempted to identify which methods of social messaging prove to be the most effective. Contrary to popular belief, scare tactics actually have a negative impact on alcohol consumption practices by over-estimating the amount of alcohol students thought their peers drank. This means scare tactics can often accidentally pressure students into thinking their peers engage in high-risk drinking. The study found that students who receive personal feedback through the internet or individual face-to-face sessions reduced their overall consumption rates better than those who received scare tactics, group counseling or mailed feedback.

This finding suggests there is a great opportunity for parents to be effective role models for their children. Recognize your child will not necessarily be able to avoid confronting alcohol-use in some way when on campus. Instead of scaring them away from its use, which can unintentionally embellish how much alcohol students use, let them know that most students are actually making tremendously responsible decisions. You can make yourself a resource of information, insight and knowledge for your child. If feedback proves to be the most effective deterrent to binge-drinking, then encourage your youth to turn to you for feedback and help.  Show them how valuable of a resource you can be.

For more information, check out the study here:
http://www.jsonline.com/features/health/51218707.html