CHANGING PERCEPTIONS OF PEER NORMS AS A DRINKING REDUCTION PROGRAM FOR COLLEGE-STUDENTS

Several hundred students at a state university were arranged in four t reatment or intervention groups. The treatment group of chief interest received a ''norm-setting'' intervention program intended to reduce s ubjects' perceptions of the norms or expectations of various reference groups (including peers and parents) about appropriate levels of drin king. Questionnaires administered at three points across time indicate d that the norm-setting intervention was indeed associated with the gr eatest reductions in the drinking norms attributed to the general stud ent body, close friends, living groups, and parents. After Sour months , such reduced norm estimates were associated with concomitant reducti ons in actual (reported) drinking behavior, but such reductions in dri nking occurred irrespective of treatment group. While this outcome fai led to vindicate any specific intervention program, it was consistent with the self-discrepancy theory on which the norm-setting interventio n was based.