The Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Age Substance Abuse: A Handbook for Educators, Counselors, and Clinicians [Hardcover]

H. Wesley Perkins (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 24, 2003 | ISBN-10: 078796459X | ISBN-13: 978-0787964597 | Edition: 1

The Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Age Substance Abuse offers educators, counselors, and clinicians a handbook for understanding and implementing a new and highly successful alternative to traditional methods for preventing substance abuse among young people. The proven "social norms" approach outlined in this book identifies young people's dramatic misperceptions about their peer norms and promotes accurate public reporting of actual positive norms that exist in all student populations. The contributors to this important book are the originators, pioneers, and active proponents of this new approach. Many of them have successfully applied the social norms approach in secondary and higher education settings and as a result have promoted healthier lifestyles among adolescents and young adults across the United States.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Influential approach based on correcting beliefs about peer substance use.” (Drug & Alcohol Findings, Spring 2005)

Review

"Too much talk about the alcohol issue is rhetorical. The Social Norms Approach offers a refreshingly honest and helpful approach to the drinking crisis on our campuses by using the peer group as part of the solution."
— Richard H. Hersh, president, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut

" book is a compendium of applications and cutting-edge findings for a promising new approach to campus alcohol abuse prevention. It is essential reading for student personnel administrators in college mental health, fraternity and sorority affairs, and alcohol and other drug abuse counseling."
— Phillip W. Meilman, director, Counseling and Psychological Services, Courtesy Professor of Human Development and associate professor of psychology in Clinical Psychiatry, Cornell University

"At last, a compendium of social norms information that addresses both the theory and practice of employing this model in higher and secondary education. This social norms handbook for educators, counselors, and clinicians succinctly prepares these professionals to act on high-risk student behavior rather than react to it."
& mdash; Robert J. Chapman, coordinator, AOD Program and associate faculty, clinical and counseling psychology, La Salle University

"Social norms pioneer Wes Perkins has assembled the country's leading theorists and practitioners to create the most comprehensive guide available in this cutting-edge field."
— Timothy C. Marchell, director of alcohol policy initiatives, Cornell University

"High-risk drinking and its consequences continue to plague those of us in higher education administration. If five years from now we are still chasing our tails ineffectually because we haven't put the empirically based strategies outlined in this book into practice on our campuses— then shame on us."
— Ray Schwarz, associate vice president for student affairs, State University of New York, College at New Paltz

"In my community, multiple efforts to reduce underage drinking accomplished little more than dividing it between those who believe in an abstinence-only approach, and those who believe in a risk-reduction approach. When I began to introduce the social norm theory, I found a new sense of hope that there may finally be something that we could do, as a community, to make progress on this important issue. From the students themselves, to the parents and teachers, our community is uniting behind the positive, nonmoralistic and noncoercive approach found in this book."
— Lisa Stone, MD, vice-chairman, Board of Health, member, Drug and Alcohol Prevention Advisory Coalition, Wellesley, Massachusetts, and parent of three teenagers

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (February 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078796459X
• ISBN-13: 978-0787964597
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #546,292 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)