DeKalb County Partnership: DCP/SAFE

Communities CAN!

Project Description

In 1998, DeKalb County (IL), in partnership with the local DeKalb and Sycamore high schools, began an intervention using the social norms approach. Although ultimately targeted at DeKalb and Sycamore high school students, this intervention features three interrelated normative message campaigns aimed at: 1) Students, 2) Parents, and 3) Teachers.

Project Funding Source

Funded by the Illinois Department of Human Services Communities CAN! Program, through a state Incentive Grant from the Federal Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP).

Project Objective

To increase the number of students who do not smoke.

Baseline Data

The baseline survey at both the Dekalb and Sycamore high schools revealed the following:
  • 75% of the sophomores did not use tobacco during the last 30 days.
  • 95% of the sophomores chose not to use smokeless tobacco during the last 30 days.
  • 81% of students chose to be tobacco-free at parties.

Marketing Methods Employed and Primary Normative Messages

DCP/SAFE's marketing tools include:
  • Newspaper ads
  • Posters
  • Flyers
  • Postcards
  • Radio ads
  • Television ads
  • Brochures
  • Presentations
A number of basic messages have been developed based on the data, then crafted so as to explicitly refer to the school in which they appear. Posters bearing these messages are displayed throughout the high schools, with a new message and image appearing monthly. The basic normative messages targeted at students include:

(Click on any linked item to view the poster.)

Baseline data revealed that students ranked their parents second only to health authorities as a believable source for information about alcohol. Accordingly, a simultaneous normative message campaign was developed targeting parents. Examples of these message include:

Here is one of the ads that was placed in local papers that were identified as valuable media channels to reach parents:

Post cards and letters with these normative messages are mailed to DeKalb and Sycamore high school students and to their parents. Coalition volunteers also display posters in locations that adults frequent throughout the community, including: banks, dry cleaners, bookstores, churches, police departments, day care centers, libraries, and various workplaces. In addition, messages encouraging the community to "Share the Truth" that most Sycamore and Dekalb students don't smoke saturate the community via billboards, as well as radio and television advertisements.

In addition to seeing the posters displayed in the schools, teachers received occasional postcards and brochures bearing normative information; these were placed in their staff mailboxes.

Measures of Message Diffusion 1999-2001: Students Report ...

  • 15% increase in hearing positive messages about the non-use of alcohol and tobacco from their parents.
  • 19% increase in hearing positive non-use of alcohol and tobacco messages from their peers.
  • 11% increase in hearing positive non-use of alcohol and tobacco messages from other adults.
  • 17% increase in hearing positive non-use of alcohol and tobacco messages from siblings.

Evaluation

One notable aspect of this intervention is that the Center for Prevention Research and Development was contracted by the Illinois Department of Human Services to independently evaluate its effectiveness. Data for evaluation has been collected using self-report surveys, as well as perception of youth use survey administered to teachers, staff and parents.

Note. The Illinois Department of Human Services required that evaluation results be based on pre- and post-test measures among 10th graders (i.e., high school sophomores) only.

Project Results

Pre- to post-test surveys (1999 to 2001) at the combined schools have shown:
  • 34% reduction in the number of students reporting the use of tobacco in the last 30 days.
  • 32% reduction in the perceived percentage of (all or most) peers who smoked cigarettes in the last month.

Project Director

Project Consultant:
Michael Haines
Director, National Social Norms Resource Center
Social Science Research Institute
148 N. 3rd Street
DeKalb, IL 60115
Tel 815.753.9745
[email protected]

Project Director
Lydia Gerzel Short
DCP/SAFE
12 Health Services Drive
DeKalb, IL 60115
Tel 815.756.4875

Further Information

See:
Haines, M., G. Barker and R. Rice, "Using Social Norms To Reduce Alcohol And Tobacco Use in Two Midwestern High Schools," (2003) in The Social Norms Approach To Preventing School And College Age Substance Abuse: A Handbook For Educators, Counselors, And Clinicians, Ed. H. Wesley Perkins. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

"The Social Norms Approach to Community Prevention of Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Abuse."
Contains a summary description of the DCP/SAFE Social Norms Campaign, evaluative data, and sample media.

Back to top of page | Back to Tobacco: Interventions with Outcome Data
The National Social Norms Resource Center
www.socialnorm.org