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> Study shows students drink less than they think they do
Study shows students drink less than they think they do
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September 10, 2004
Would it surprise you to know that most SFU students drink alcohol between three and five times a week? Or that they often miss classes after tying one on at the pub? Or that they frequently drink and drive?
Or would it come as more of a shock to learn that in fact, just the opposite is true: the majority of SFU students drink once a month or less, and they mix their alcohol with a good shot of common sense.
This fall, SFU health outreach coordinator Dal Sohal is papering the campus with a series of awareness posters that take aim at common misperceptions about student drinking habits. Poster number one shot down the myth that student life is one big drunken party: “Most (65%) of SFU students drink once a month or less.” New posters will appear throughout the term.
Sohal, who last January studied the success of similar awareness campaigns at the University of Arizona as the first participant in SFU's staff mobility initiative, is keen to bridge the gap “between perception and reality” when it comes to student drinking. To that end, SFU is the only B.C. university participating in a national study led by the Canadian Centre for Social Norms Research in Toronto. The first step was to survey a random sampling of students last fall about their attitudes around alcohol.
“We found that our students aren't drinking as much as they think they are,” says Sohal. “Even though most of them told us they drink once a month or less, a majority of students said they thought other students were drinking between one and five times a week. Students want to fit in, and if they wrongly perceive that everyone else is drinking, they may feel pressure to drink.”
Sohal says SFU students generally “don't drink much, behave responsibly when they do drink, and don't allow alcohol to have a negative impact on their lives.”
She hopes the poster campaign will “give confidence to responsible drinkers, and help them understand that they are part of the majority. It's a different kind of health promotion-away from the scare tactics of yesterday. We hope that the posters will create conversation and get people talking about the issues."
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