Background

The expectation that students will drink excessively on the day they celebrate their 21st birthdays is not uncommon.  Additionally, approximately 21% of our students had negative consequences ranging from hangovers to driving drunk and car crashes because of drinking alcohol on the day they celebrated their birthday.

The proportion of students who expect to binge drink on the day they celebrate their 21st birthday is about two times greater than actual and four times greater than Cal Poly Pomona student binge drinking norms for the past two weeks.

Problem Statement

Do the messages about drinking "social norms" and safe drinking tips on the 21st birthday card (Appendix E) result in safer celebrating by reducing negative consequences from drinking?

Research Objectives

• To determine the perceived versus actual drinks Cal Poly students drank to celebrate their 21st birthday.
• To develop a 21st birthday card that results in:
  • Less fewer negative consequences from drinking
  • Lower average drinks
  • Lower frequency of binge drinking (4+ for females, 5+ for males)

Methodology

Sample: Our sample is Cal Poly students who have turned 21 between November 21 and the end of March. Our sample size was 613.

Fieldwork: First we gathered primary data by surveying approximately 850 Cal Poly students on how they celebrated or how will they celebrate their 21st birthday and if they drank or planned to drink, how many perceived versus actual drinks they had. From there we created 21st birthday cards to send out to students turning 21 a few weeks before their birthday. We sent these cards out to approximately 300 students. The birthday cards included social norms of 21st birthday celebrations by Cal Poly students, plus other valuable information such as safety tips and control. After sending out the cards, we sent out a follow up questionnaire (Appendix F, use browswer back button to return to this page) including a prepaid stamped envelope to those students asking them their perceived versus actual drinks they had the day they celebrated their birthday. We also sent out the same questionnaire to the remaining students turning 21 that we did not send birthday cards to. As a reminder we sent out post cards them to fill out the questionnaire and mail it back.

Limitations: A few limitations we have with our research are non-response errors and response bias. With non-response error, there is a large amount of those that did not respond to our questionnaire. These students may be different than those that did respond, perhaps in the amount of drinks they drank or their attitude towards Student Health Services. Looking at response errors, the respondents may not be telling the truth of how many actual drinks they had or perceived to have.

Findings

Figures 1 and Appendix A and B show the average number of drinks females and males expected to drink and did drink by whether or not they had consequences from their drinking.

Figure 1

Conclusion and Recommendations

The current birthday card messages may work for females but not for males.  Females who received the card drank less than what they had expected to drink when they celebrated.  Compared to the women who did not receive the card who drank more than expected.   The current birthday card messages may work for females but not for males.  Males who received the card drank less than what they had expected to drink when they celebrated.  Compared to the men who did not receive the card who drank the same as expected.

Problems or limitations result from methodology of collecting data.  These are non-response errors since only 14% of returned the questionnaire.   The response bias may be from men who might normally drink more but did not respond because of an unwillingness to admit to drinking excessively, especially to Student Health Services.  With non-response error, there is a large amount of those that did not respond to our questionnaire. These students may be different than those that did respond, perhaps in the amount of drinks they drank or their attitude towards Student Health Services.  Looking at response bias, the respondents may not be telling the truth of how many actual drinks they had or perceived to have.

Regarding consequences, both groups (receiving the card or not), the proportion who had consequences was about the same, 12% for both groups of females and 12% of males receiving the card and 6% for males not receiving the card.  However, the sample is small (see Appendices A and B).  It is interesting to note that those with consequences who received the card did drink less than those not receiving the card and might be presumed to have less severe consequences (e.g., less severe vomiting or headaches).

Recommendations

Improvements can be made to the birthday card, the instrument and collection methodology.  Change the social norms information and provide specific recommendations for "Party Safe" limit for drinks based on the current data.  Changes would be:

• the proportion who did not drink any alcoholic drinks from 30% to 46%
• the proportion of women who did not drink more than 3 alcoholic drinks from 67% to 71%
• the proportion of men did not drink more than 4 alcoholic drinks from 56% to 70%
• The proportion of who did not have negative consequences from drinking from 79% to 89%

The "Party Safe" goal wording should be changed to "Set a Party Safe" limit.  For women this is no more than 3 drinks.   For men this is no more than 4.

The instrument might be substituted with one-to-one interviews in person or on the phone that would give more specific responses. Focus groups are another possibility for getting more accurate information.  Greater detail could be received with a Likert scale for negative consequences.  On the questionnaire, instead of just an open ended question about consequences several options should be given to check off with a Likert scale next to each indicating how severe the consequence felt.  Another technique might be to have an outside organization such as the American Marketing Association gather the data so the responses will not be bias for or against Student Health Services.

---

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

E-mail: jvgrizzell@csupomona.edu