Encouraging Responsible Drinking Among Underage Drinkers A Qualitative Investigation of Organizational Issues in an Alcohol Awareness Program for Blue-Collar Workers Reducing alcohol consumption through television advertising.
Abstract Public Service Announcements tailored to specific college drinking rituals ( Treise , Wolburg and Otnes 1999 ) were tested on 133 underage undergraduate drinkers . More significant reductions in drinking intentions were found when using appeals focusing on drinking rituals pertaining to Maturity/Order ( older students drink moderately : “ Do n't drink like a freshman . ” ) than to Transformation ( desired personality and mood changes ) , Community ( social bonding and camaraderie ) , or a no-message Control . Gender did not moderate this effect . Underage drinkers may drink , in part , to feel more “ grown up . ” Emphasizing that more senior students actually drink responsibly may diminish this belief and result in reduced alcohol consumption among underage students Purpose . To explore sociopolitical and organizational issues in worksite alcohol health promotion . Few such programs are reported in the literature . Design . Qualitative data were gathered during the development and implementation phases of a program through focus groups , key informant interviews , and observations made by the research team . Setting s and Subjects . One hundred and ninety-nine blue-collar workers from a private company ( a group which was also involved in a r and omized controlled trial ) and 123 workers from four other organizations ( nontrial groups ) received the intervention . The nontrial groups were used to pilot-test the intervention and in a post-trial assessment . All companies were located in Montreal , Quebec , Canada . Intervention . Two worksite health promotion sessions on responsible drinking were given to small groups of workers . Measures . The reactions of workers , unions , and employers to the program and to the evaluation trial were observed . The viewpoints of key informants were solicited through semi-structured interviews . Analysis was accomplished through several cycles of memo writing . Results . Alcohol is a sensitive subject when discussed in worksite group setting s. Our data suggest that there are alcohol problems in the workplace of which coworkers are clearly cognizant . In one setting the intervention led to the development of organizational rules regarding workers who reported to work inebriated , where this behavior had been previously tolerated . The sessions were better received when disease concepts were avoided . Evaluation research on alcohol requires particular care with confidentiality and ongoing communication with all stakeholders , especially unions . Conclusions . Worksite health promotion regarding alcohol is feasible . The complex process of negotiating , implementing , and evaluating a worksite alcohol health promotion program is discussed . More research on the sociopolitical aspects of such programs is needed Regular drinkers from the general public whose drinking behavior was known to be unaffected by a previous antidrug advertising campaign were involved in a field experiment to assess the impact of a television commercial based on controlled-drinking principles . In a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement of exposure to the advertising campaign ( advertisement , no advertisement ) and exposure to a letter announcing the campaign ( letter , no letter ) , 96 subjects from two cities in tropical North Queensl and provided baseline and posttreatment details of alcohol consumption and alcohol-related attitudes . Baseline measures were taken approximately 12 months prior to the start of the campaign , and posttesting occurred 3 weeks after the campaign . Results were consistent with the proposition that the advertisement reduced intake provided that subjects also received the st and ard letter alerting them to the start of the campaign
Aims To review the effectiveness of  responsible drinking messages ( RDMs ) .