Constructing Guidelines for an Effective Educational Campaign

Constructing guidelines for an effective educational campaign

Evaluating the process of an educational campaign as a part of the Romanian DRAIN project which aims to reduce alcohol related harm among youth

M. J. Reijlink, MSc

Colophon

© STAP - Dutch institute for alcohol policy –

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November, 2010

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Index

§ 1. Introduction

§ 3. Results

§ 3.1 Guidelines for an effective educational campaign

§ 3.1.1 How to invite parents

§ 3.1.2 Educational methods

§ 3.1.3 Which information should be given?

§ 3.1.4 Media attention

§ 4. Conclusion

References

Annex

§ 1. Introduction

The age of onset of drinking alcoholic beverages is an important factor on short term as well as long term effects on health (Grube & Nygaard, 2001). For young people the consequences of alcohol use are relatively high. The young body and brain are developing which makes it sensitive to the toxic effects of alcohol.Teenagers often don’t think about long term consequences; they want to distance from parents and turn to their peers(WHO, 2001; White, 2005). Teenage drinking must therefore be considered as a serious problem.

To prevent teenage drinking it must be clear what causes alcohol consumption. Drinking behavior and norms and values about alcohol are not only a personal choice; mostly they are a result of influences from the environment, for example: parenting style, influences of friends and legislation about alcohol (Holder, 1999). Because alcohol consumption is connected to many influences from the environment the whole community must be addressed not just the individual. Only in this way drinking patterns and problems in a society can be changed. Especially to change the behavior of children addressing the environment is very important, children don’t always make rational choices. Parents have a very important influence on the drinking behavior of youngsters (Babor et al, 2010; Van der Vorst, 2007).
The DRAIN project (Dutch Romanian Alcohol policy Implementation Network) tries to address this problem in Romania; it strives to reduce alcohol related harm among youth. The project is implemented in pilot city Pitesti, Romania, from April 2008 till April 2011. In this pilot city a model will be developed for local alcohol policy in Romania. This model will subsequently be disseminated to some other cities in Romania. The project uses an integral approach.The objective of the DRAIN project is that professionals from different organizations within the community form an integrated network and combine their strength to tackle alcohol related harm. Involvement of these organizations is also important because of the project’s focus on the environment of the drinker; these organizations form the environment of people within the community.Interventions that are implemented within the project are all directed at different organizations and persons from within the community and not on the individual drinker. The combination of broad societal interventions is proven to be effective in reducing alcohol related harm (Babor et al. 2010; Holder, 1999).

Schools are a very important organization within the environment of youngsters. For this reason an educational campaign was organized within the DRAIN project at several schools in Pitesti.An important reason to involve schools in the project is that schools form a portal to reach parents of teenagers. As indicated before parents have a big influence on the drinking behavior of teenagers. Research has shown that children of parents who restrict the use of alcohol drink less and start drinking alcohol at a later age (Vet & Van der Eijnden, 2007). The main focus of this campaign was informing parents about the dangers of teenage drinking and educating them about the best way to handle teenage drinking.Educating teenagersthrough meetings at schools is not proven effectiveto change their drinking behavior. The combination of educating childrenand their parents through meetings can have effect however and decrease alcohol use of children (Koning et al, 2009). For this reason there are also meetings organized for students, but the main focus of the campaignis on parents.

In this report the campaign is evaluated.The aim of this evaluation report is:Constructing guidelines for the implementation of an effective educational campaign.Like the project the campaign functioned as a pilot. The guidelines can be used to improve the campaign when it is replicated in other cities of Romania.
§ 2. Method

In order to evaluate the campaign and to develop guidelines for dissemination, different data are gathered. In total ten schools in Pitesti participated in the campaign. The campaign took place in the school year 2009 – 2010.

Six primary schools and four high schools were selected to participate in the campaign. An agreement was made with the schools to organize at least one activity, on a monthly basis, for parents and/or students. A brochure was offered to the schools to distribute to the parents and students with information about teenage drinking. The schools were free to shape the meetings to their own discretion. Two joint events were organized during the campaign. At the beginning and at the end of the campaigna manifestation was held in the city centre of Pitesti. At both events about 200 students participated.They made banners and t-shirts and offered flyers and informative materials about the dangers of teenage drinkingto passers-by.During the campaign the media were closely involved. Several TV news items and newspaper articles appeared about activities within the campaign. A newspaper was also contracted to print six different articles (one every two weeks) with information about teenage drinking.

The data to evaluate the process of the campaign was gathered at the end of the school year. Several questionnaires were filled out by teachers who organized meetings (for the campaign). All schools participating in the campaign filled out these questionnaires after every organized meeting during a few months. From this questionnaire an evaluation of the meetings became clear; factual information (how many participants, how were they invited, etc.), a general opinion about the meetings and points for improvement. Teachers filled out what the general opinion was of students or parents and what kind of questions they asked.Conclusions about opinions from students and parents (from the questionnaires)are made with care since they derive from second-hand information (from the teacher).

In May 2010 ten interviews were conducted by a researcher to gather qualitative data about the meetings that were organized. From the ten schools participating in the campaign three schools were selected, from these three schools one teacher (responsible for organizing campaign meetings), one parent and one or two student(s) (who participated in the meetings) were selected for an interview. In total 10 persons were interviewed. The project coordinator selected the respondents, consequently it can not be said that these persons were representativespokes persons for all teachers respectively parents or students. We therefore can and shall not generalize the effect of the meetings which the respondents indicated or their opinions about the meetings.However, the aim of this study is not to measure the overall effect or opinion of the campaign but to evaluate the process.The data needed for this study isfactual information about certain structural aspects of the meetings and the suggestions the respondents gave for improvement. The interview lasted between 20 and 30 minutes. The interviews were recorded and from the transcription the data was analyzed.

§ 3. Results

Ten schools participated within the campaign. Some of these school organized meetings very frequently but other schools stuck to the minimum of one activity per month. Within the activities organized this campaign there participated 87 parents, 105 students and 12 teachers. Most of the participants took part in several meetings.In total there were 58 meetings organized from November till May by schools participating in the campaign.

§ 3.1 Guidelines for an effective educational campaign

A lot of information about the campaign is retrieved from the interviews and the questionnaires. From these data four main topics derive concerning the organization of meetings about teenage drinking: How to invite parents; what educational methods should be used; what information should be given and what should be the role of the media.’ In this paragraph you can find the different guidelines for these four topics that derived from the data.

§ 3.1.1 How to invite parents

Organising a meeting begins with inviting participants. The choices ‘which participants to invite’ and ‘how to motivate them to come to the meeting’ are very important. From the introduction it becomes clear that parents are an important group of focus within the campaign. However parents are not always motivated and willing to come to school meetings to talk about the subject alcohol.

From the interviews it becomes clear that there are different methods to motivate parents to come to the meetings about alcohol:

-To show parents the importance of the meeting; a personalised letter can be send from the school to all parents. In this letter parents should be informed about the importance of the subject ‘teenage drinking’ and they should be personally invited to take part in the meeting.

-Some parents might find a first specific meeting about alcohol use to confronting, might not be interested in it or do not perceive it as a subject to talk about with the school. For this reason it iswise to use structural school meetings (if the school organises these meetings) to discuss the subject teenage drinking. During these structural (mostly monthly) meetings different subjects are discussed. This makes the meeting less confronting and more general of nature.Sometimes it is even obliged for parents to come to these meetings. By talking about alcohol during those meetings many parents can be reached, because parents are expected to attend the meeting.

-During the first meeting is important to provide the parents with the most urgent and important information. Parents should know that they can come to the school to talk about this subject. After this meeting there can be regular follow up meetings for parents that are interested.These meetings can have a more informal character; this might make it easier for parents to talk about the subject. Respondents from the interviews indicate that one meeting per month would be good.

-From the interviews it becomes clear that parents from 1st year high school students are most motivated and committed (since their child just started the school). Organising meetings every year for this group of parents could be a good idea. Also it becomes clear that the mentor of a certain class is the best person to organise the meetings. The mentor of the class knows the children best as well as the parents.

As said in the introduction the focus of the meetings within an educational campaign must be to reach parents. However, in combination with parent meetings it can also be good to organize some meetings for students. Meetings for this group are much easier to organize since the school can just organize these meetings class by class.

§ 3.1.2 Educational methods

There are different methods in communicating the same message. The way of communicating the information can make a big difference. Talking about the subject of alcohol use can be difficult for some people. By using the right communication methods people may interact more during the meeting and remember and accept the message better.

From the interviews different educational methods for both parents and students become clear:

-Visual tools are a stimulant for the processing of information. Both students and parents indicatethat information is easier to process if visual information tools are used. Visual information appeals more to the imagination and has more impact.They also generate more questions and form a good starting point for discussion.

Examples of visual tools are a film about the subject, a brochure with images accompanied bytext or a power point presentation accompanied by spoken text. For children it can be also good to express their opinions, emotions and knowledge in a creative way; by performing a play for example or make drawings (see figure 1).

-Another educational method can be to illustrate a concrete casus about a specific alcohol related topic you want to discuss. Parents or children might find it difficult to start talking about alcohol from their own experiences. If a concrete casus is given it might be easier for people to start the discussion.

-Another good starting point for discussion, that became clear from the interviews, is using a questionnaire. By letting parents fill in an anonymous questionnaire it can become clear how parents think about alcohol and what experiences or questions they have regarding teenage drinking. This information can form a very good starting point for discussion, handling the information anonymous of course. The leader of the meeting can address very concrete and useful topics in this way. Also an anonymous questionnaire filled in by the children of the parents can be a good starting point for discussion both during a meeting for parents or students. A quiz can also be a nice and friendly way to start the meeting or a discussion. Questions can be asked about interesting, shocking or funny facts about alcohol.

§ 3.1.3 Which information should be given?

Besides from the way of giving information, the sort of information that is given is also very important of course. It is difficult to know which knowledge about alcohol the participants already know and what kind of information is most urgent and important to give.

It became clear that different sorts of information are very useful and important to give during the meetings:

-The first, which is also an educational method, is to invite experts to talk about their knowledge and experiences regarding alcohol. You can think of doctors or police officers who can tell about the health consequences of drinking alcohol for children or the legal restrictions and consequences that account for children regarding buying and consuming alcohol. By letting experts give information to the participants, the information gets more status and impact. The experts can bring the message more alive since they can give concrete examples from their experiences. You can also be sure of qualitatively good information since they are experts on the topic.

-It is very important that parents know after attending the meeting that they have a very important influence on their child’s drinking behavior. From the interviews with teachers it seems that parents often think that they can not influence their child’s drinking behavior, or they attribute the responsibility of educating the children about this subject to the school or other authorities. It must be clear for the parents that they have to take their responsibility in setting limits about alcohol consumption to their children. Therefore it is also important to present accurate information about the health risks of teenage drinking; this might help making parents aware of the seriousness of the matter.

-It might be a difficult matter to talk about, but from the interviews it becomes clear that alcohol use by parents or family of the child can be a serious problem. These problems have a big impact on children and can influence their drinking behavior. It might be good to make parents and students during the meeting extra aware of the fact that they can come to the school/ teacher to talk about this subject in private.

-From both the interviews as the questionnaires it becomes clear that figures about teenage alcohol use on local level (in the relevant community) have great impact. People tend to think that general figures about alcohol use don’t apply to them. If the data concern the relevant community this information has much more impact.

-During the meetings it must become clear that parents have an important influence on their child’s behavior. If parents set rules for their children they drink less alcohol in general. It is a very good idea to let parents think about rules which they could set for their child and agree on some rules during the meeting. Parents might feel more confident applying rules if other parents do the same.

§ 3.1.4 Media attention

During the campaign the media were closely involved. Several TV news items and newspaper articles appeared about activities within the campaign. A newspaper was also contracted to print six different articles (one every two weeks) with information about teenage drinking. From the interviews it becomes clear that media attention is important inacquiring public awareness about the topic. Some respondents mention media messages about the project. The respondents don’t specifically mention the news items that were published about teenage drinking. The respondents could therefore not reflect on this intervention.