The Kiama Stop Underage Drinking project campaign was launched in 2013. 

From October 2013-September 2015, a community campaign was implemented, including strategies and activities such as website and social media; alcohol and social norms curricula taught at Kiama High School; parent workshops; health promotion activities at community events and markets; and media advertisements, posters and banners. 

The campaign’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ tagline sought to empower the community to stick firm to positive decisions regarding alcohol. 

Community consultation took place and data collected on Kiama’s attitudes, knowledge and perceptions about underage drinking. 

According to the organisers, in 2013 they collected a range of data from 223 adolescents, 653 parents of adolescents and 503 community members. 

The project was funded by the Australian Research Council via a Future Fellowship grant.

This project took a ‘social norms’ approach and aimed to alter the perceived cultural acceptance of underage drinking by supporting community standards and creating an environment where it is okay not to drink. 

The project also aimed to reduce alcohol consumption among adolescents by engaging the whole community in a comprehensive social marketing campaign supported by targeted initiatives “which are teen-specific, parent-specific and community-specific”.

According to project manager Kelly Andrews, Kiama was chosen because of specific community elements which make it an ideal location for a social research study, such as a well-established community identity, a local media outlet and one central local high school.

“Typically, our community over-estimates the proportion of teens that drink alcohol,” she said.   

“In particular, teens believe that their peers drink alcohol at an earlier age, drink it more often, and drink more of it than they actually do. 

“An adolescent’s perception of what is ‘normal’ – what they think others do and what they think others expect of them - has an even stronger influence on their behaviour than peer pressure.

“There is evidence that if we can correct these mis-perceptions, we can reduce the pressure teens feel to drink, they will start drinking later, drink less often and drink smaller amounts.

“There is also strong evidence that many parents perceive that ‘other parents’ approve of teen drinking, and that this perception influences their behaviour. 

“Parents feel peer pressure to provide alcohol to their teens because they believe this is accepted by other parents.”

IRIS Research conducted telephone interviews of a random sample of Kiama residents on behalf of the researchers.

“In 2013, on average, people (in Kiama) thought that 53 per cent of 16-year-old’s drank alcohol,” Ms Andrews said. 

“In 2015, this had dropped to 44 per cent, much closer to the reality of 29 per cent of 16-year-old’s who actually drink.

“The community’s perception that 14-year-old’s drink fell by seven per cent from 25 per cent in 2013 to 18 per cent in 2015. 

“The actual statistic of 14-year-old’s who are current drinkers (defined as having had an alcoholic drink in the last week) is around 12 per cent.”

Researchers reported that the number of adults who believe it is unacceptable for 16-year-old’s to drink increased by 12.4 per cent.

They also reported that the number of adults who believe that the community think it is unacceptable for 16-year-old’s to drink increased by 7.2 per cent. 

Ms Andrews said they were still analysing the results of an online survey, which included feedback from adolescents. 

However, she said preliminary analysis was encouraging.

“The main message seems to be that eventually, over time and constant saturation of the mass messages, people started to believe them,” she said.

“So it illustrates that these attitude changes do take time. We definitely made some inroads.

“I’m also encouraged by that there just seems to be, that self-efficacy and just that feeling of being supported by community standards has risen.

“I think that’s really fundamental to the sustainability of those things.”

Ms Andrews said organisers were proposing to host a public forum whereby residents could learn about the campaign, what they had achieved and how attitudes and perceptions changed within the Kiama community. 

Would you be interested in attending? Let us know at kinews@fairfaxmedia.com.au.