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Wednesday, 23 July 2008 19:43 |
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Underage drinking has received a great deal of publicity lately. The topic is often framed as a ‘youth binge-drinking crisis’ or ‘epidemic’. This article by Clarissa Hughes in the July edition of Of Substance briefly outlines the social norms approach to supporting young people to make healthy choices about alcohol - by affirming the fact that most young people are already making healthy choices about alcohol.
Update: October 15
The Tasmanian Institute of Law Enforcement Studies (TILES) and the Department of Rural Health at the University of Tasmania have recently conducted the first major Australian trial of the ‘social norms’ approach to health promotion. Find more info here.
The 'social norms' approach does not focus on risk or perpetuate the stereotype of the
'bingeing teen', rather it supports and affirms young people by focusing on
the healthy choices about alcohol that most of them make, most of the
time.
You can read Youth and Alcohol: Challenging the Stereotype in the July 2008 edition of Of Substance (Vol. 6 No. 3, page 23) - http://www.ofsubstance.org.au/archive/pdf/ofsubstance_2008_7.pdf.
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