This year, Life Skills Coordinators Carole Allert and Joann Andrews have expanded the curriculum beyond teaching  lessons on social skills and character education to include a new strategy for reducing negative social behaviors in students. 

The strategy, called the “Social Normative Education Approach,” is an environmental prevention strategy, which uses study data to change false perceptions of community norms.

The Life Skills program’s Social Normative Education Poster Campaign is a replication of Northern Illinois University’s (NIU) Social Norms Approach, based out of its University Health Enhancement Services.

This particular model has been used to significantly reduce the ‘binge’ drinking on NIU’s campus.  During the past ten years, NIU has experienced over a 44% reduction in binge drinking by students.

The Social Normative Education theory states that the reduction in the number of students who believe in a false norm will increase the number of students that exhibit behaviors consistent with the ‘healthy’ true norm.

“In other words, if we can change a student’s perception from their exaggerated view that “everyone is doing it”  to the reality that only three out of every ten students are actually doing it, it is likely that the students will not engage in the negative behavior,”  Mrs. Allert said.

According to Mrs. Andrews, negative perceptions are often overestimated, and this adds to and reinforces peer pressure to indulge in the negative behavior.

Middle school students frequently overestimate the number of their peers who drink, smoke cigarettes, smoke marijuana, and make other bad choices.

Through Social Normative Education, an accurate perception of use will be established and will increase students’ positive decision-making skills.

The objective of the campaign was for students to know the actual percentage of Galesburg CUSD #205 middle school students who smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, and smoke marijuana, as well as how many students choose to talk with their parents when they have a problem, avoid trouble with others, and follow directions.

With this knowledge, it is hoped that there would be a decrease in the percentage of students who exhibit the negative behaviors and an increase in the percentage of students who exhibit the positive behaviors.

Permission granted by Sandy Wallace