Social Norming
620 Represent

Marion High School “A Team”

Based on newspaper headlines, coffee shop talk, and the kid down the street, you may think that Marion County teens party every weekend. High school students themselves are purveyors of this message, reporting that “everybody is doing it” when it comes to partying, staying out late, drinking or using drugs.

Enter the “A Team”, a group of Marion High School students who are standing up for the truth about teens and alcohol use; that two thirds of the Marion High School student body do not drink.

The “A Team” formed last fall as a strategy to decrease underage drinking through social norming. Social norming is a health promotion developed by researchers who study social influences and how they affect group behavior. They measured perceptions and actual behaviors among students and found a wide discrepancy.

Marion High School students were surveyed in September about their own alcohol use, as well as their beliefs about alcohol use by students in their grade and students in the school as a whole. They were asked questions about a variety of behaviors and perceptions, including “how honest were your responses” and “how honest do you think other students were?”

Two thirds responded they had never used any form of alcohol. However, they thought half the students in their grade drank once a month. When considering the entire student body, they thought half drank once a week.

“A Team” members were surprised by the survey results. One young woman commented, “We aren’t as bad as we thought we were!” All felt it was important to correct misperceptions and to spread the word that it is not the norm for Marion High School students to drink.

The campaign kicked off in January with a cryptic message -- 620 Represent. Another clue was recently added, enhancing the message to 620 Represent 2:3. In simple terms it means that two out of three students don’t even drink alcohol and that they should stick up for each other.

The pilot project is coordinated through a partnership between U.S.D. 408 and Communities In Schools of Marion County, Inc. Funding is provided by a Drug Free Communities grant from the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration. Phoebe Janzen, school counselor, and Linda Ogden, CIS of Marion County Executive Director, serve as consultants to the student team.

“A Team” members are now going on the road, spreading the word about positive behaviors and good choices. They want younger children to have healthy and accurate expectations of what it means to be a Marion High School student. The “A Team” may eventually guide high school students in neighboring school districts to form teams and start social norming in their school. After all, most kids in Marion County don’t drink. That is the truth.

Actuality National Social Norming