Isn’t what’s needed better education to address drinking problems among college students?

Education is one approach, but it cannot serve to counteract the pervasive and very strong messages out there that tell students that it’s okay to abuse alcohol.
The fact is that students are not simply educated in the classroom, but receive "educational" messages from the environment in which they live and go to school. Without aligning the messages in the environment to the messages students hear from prevention professionals, they are living in a mixed message environment. The approach the Center is promoting tries to change that.
Education reaches a certain number of people effectively. A certain number of people will also respond to normative influences. But for a certain group of people, stricter policies need to be enacted to create the kind of behavioral changes that prevention professionals and others concerned about this problem are looking for. Behavioral changes in response to comprehensive, environmental approaches have been demonstrated in both seat belt and drunk driving behavior. Smoking too.

The Higher Education Center welcomes your feedback.
Please use our Suggestion Box.