Social marketing and community mobilisation to reduce alcohol-related harms

Description

A new social marketing intervention is being developed and trialled in a partnership between Deakin University and CTC Ltd. The intervention has been designed using an evidence-based behaviour change approach called the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The social marketing intervention focuses on alerting parents and adolescents to the NHMRC (2009) guidelines for safe alcohol use, and seeks to convince parents and adolescents to set agreements that adults will not supply alcohol to underage youth.

Evaluation Evidence

Evidence from community mobilisation interventions suggest that multi-level, targeted prevention programs are effective at reducing adolescent alcohol use. In the US, Project Northland combined community-wide taskforce education with peer leadership and parental involvement/education to achieve a small but significant reduction in weekly adolescent alcohol use in those exposed to the intervention, compared to the control group. Australian programs have also achieved success in reducing alcohol- related harm through a combination of community mobilisation (evident through increased media activity, the formation of coalitions and groups, and increased community awareness and concern for alcohol-related harm) and social marketing strategies (Cooper, Midford, Jaeger, & Hall, 2001; Midford & Boots, 1999).

Monitoring Recommendations

• • Monitoring information should include: the local dissemination of social marketing materials; consumer recognition and reactions; improvements over time compared to controls communities in targeted risk and protective factors and alcohol behaviours.

Conflict of Interest

Note John Toumbourou wrote this review and led the Deakin program development