Inviting Students to Reduce at Risk Behaviors w/o Appearing to Lecture or Preach 

There is no shortage of information regarding the risks associated with underage or high-risk drinking. There are dozens of web sites that are dedicated to this very topic...all are good, that is, informative, and the majority if not all present to an adult audience. Students will likely not spend more than the few seconds it takes to discern the parental tone of a "prevention site" before leaving with the belief that al prevention is "bogus" and committed to just one thing...keeping students from having the good time that is their perceived right, the "rites of passage" if you will.

To present information to students does not have to involve the traditional "dad or mom talk" with its student-perceived "thou shall not" litany of directives designed to ensure that students trade personal safety for the hope of having a "good time."

Fortunately, motivating students to look at the "big picture" and trusting in their ability to learn from the experiences they and their peers have, is not beyond the ability of parents or educators. The challenge is to avoid the temptation to address a behavioral concern with intellectual interventions.

The historic approach to prevention argues that if students have enough information about the risks associated with underage and high-risk drinking, they will make good choices and avoid risk. Interestingly, most students already do this, but not because of a parental admonishment about drinking, but because they know the difference between the "good things" related to drinking and the "less good things." These students do not change their behavior because their intellectual understanding of the risks associated with use goes up, they change their behaviors when they realize that what they want from alcohol use has less to do with the use and more to do with realizing one's social and interpersonal objectives. When the use of alcohol is perceived as enhancing one's social status, it will continue. If, however, one's social status is sabotaged by one's antics when drinking, consumption is modified.

Simply stated, when the costs--social, familial, legal, health, economic--of drinking exceed the perceived benefits received, students change their drinking behavior. This is the objective of prevention, but historically millions of dollars and countless hours of professional and parental hours have been invested in trying to alert students to the risks and dangers associated with drinking in the mistaken belief that information alone results in behavior change.

Two of the more effective ways to engage anyone, but especially students in considering behavior change are humor and parody. Both engage students in considering the issues related to drinking--their issues, not a parent's or educator's--from a different perspective. No longer is the student asked to change his or her behavior, but rather is asked to consider if what he or she gets from current patterns of behavior are worth what must be invested to obtain them.

This shift from trying to make proverbial horse drink from the watering hole when it is not thirsty to salting the oats so the horse becomes thirsty and therefore wants to do so, is nothing short of revolutionary. Humor and parody can do this.

Here are some of my favorites vehicles by which to invite students to revisit their personal choices about drinking:

Use the 1987 Bill Cosby drinking clip from his "Himself" concert. In his, “What I really want to know about is drinking, getting drunk, and saying you are having a good time” piece - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYsko_tc3a0, Cosby pokes fun at those who engage in high-risk drinking. He is taking about adults, which increases the likelihood that students will list, but the points he makes are universal in their indication of "all time dumb behavior" when drinking...by anyone.

I used this to start discussions with students about "getting drunk." After watching the clip—and even though it is dated by Cosby’s age and dress, its message and humor are timeless—I would ask students to come up with as many synonyms for “drunk” as they could. I would write these on the board and collect at least 12 to 15…e.g., wasted, bombed, hammered, smashed, trashed, etc. I always get “shit faced” and I would write it down, and the snickering would tell me that the audience was “thinking” “all f _ _ _ _ _ d-up” so I would acknowledge this and write it on the board. I then would ask, besides referring to being intoxicated, what else do these terms have in common? I would wait, perhaps 30-seconds before the silence would become a bit uncomfortable and someone would say something like, “they are all negative.” I would acknowledge this and then ask why do we refer to being intoxicated with terms that could just as easily be found on the front page of the daily newspaper…and bring a copy with me to illustrate.

I would end up the presentation by asking the audience to proffer ideas on how the language we use may affect the behaviors we display when drinking, especially to intoxication.

Some other video clips that may be useful – you will need to “set them up” with a lead in and then process them in a particular way in order set up their “drinking related” context:

· To demonstrate the illogical thinking/reasoning that student may use to justify continued high-risk if not stupid behaviors and ways of drinking - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfq5kju627c
· To demonstrate how people see what they are looking for and miss the obvious (this is a clip that can be used in many different presentation): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yQexTsAhjY
· To demonstrate “point of view” or the need to attend to the “big picture”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voAntzB7EwE
· To demonstrate how do we learn to drink in a high-risk fashon use this clip from Disney’s Beauty & the Beast. Everyone will have seen the film and few if any will have made the connedtion that men are being taught to womanize, be violent when drinking, guzzle beer, etc.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhG9hKiplfQ NOTE: Women are also being taught how to look, how to act around men, etc. There are MANY cultural messages…high-risk messages…inherent in this clip
· To demonstrate either (1) addiction of (2) co-dependency (or both): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0m9iu6O3dg This is the 1st of 2 10-min video clips that are very powerful. A link to the second clip can be found on the site of the first.

Story telling has always been an effective way to deliver advice, raise concern about typical behavior, and motivate individuals to review their own behavior. In this age of digital media, this has become convenient...all it takes is a bit of creative thinking on our part to blend the myriad resources available online into a tapestry of drinking related introspection that students are willing to consume. Remember, it is easier to salt the oats than to beat the horse to motivate changes in its behavior.

What do you think?

Dr. Robert