A new three-year alcohol prevention project funded by an NCAA Choices grant at Washington University (Missouri) is using peer educators to present three different programs with social norms components.

Research has shown that peer education and social norming can be effective ways to reduce high-risk drinking among college students, and we were interested in varying the way peer educators might be used to implement these programs. This program is a collaborative effort among the athletics department, health promotion and wellness, and student health and counseling offices. Twenty-five peer educators were recruited from three specific student groups, 21 of which were student-athletes.

In the first program, peer educators conduct a 60-minute psycho-educational group, consisting of alcohol information, campus drinking norms and tips for moderate drinking.

In the second program, peer educators ask students to complete a drinking survey as they exit one of the dining halls. Students who complete the survey receive candy and an oversized card/bookmark with drinking facts and national data about college alcohol consumption.

The third program uses "Check-up to Go (CHUG)," a structured mechanism that provides personalized feedback to students on their drinking, identifies specific risk factors and compares their consumption to campus and national norms. In addition to receiving this personalized feedback in the mail, students in this group will be phoned by a peer educator who will conduct a brief follow-up session using strategies drawn from motivational interviewing and brief negotiation.

During the phone call, peer educators conduct a structured session of negotiation strategies including (1) asking the student what parts of their feedback were most interesting/surprising, (2) inquiring about pros and cons of the student's alcohol use, (3) perceived importance and confidence of change, and (4) negotiating a plan of action. Peer educators are provided with a standardized script for this phone call.

Scott Walters from the University of Texas School of Public Health, a researcher specializing in college student drinking and motivational interviewing skills, designed the CHUG instrument for peer educators in November 2002.

The peer educators have begun presenting their programs this semester and will continue to present programs during the next two years. Students who participate in any of these three programs will be contacted again after about a month to determine what impact the program had on their drinking patterns. The follow-up data from this study should provide us with more information about how our students can best impact the drinking of their peers.