The Rethink campaign to reduce the normalization of prescription stimulant misuse on college campuses

Abstract

The illegal use of prescription stimulants has become an established health risk among the college student population. To address this phenomenon, a student-driven campaign informed was developed, implemented, and evaluated on a college campus. The Rethink campaign involved traditional, print, and social media, as well as in-person events. To test the effectiveness of campaign messages, college students (N = 251) at an experimental site (n = 187) completed surveys before and after the campaign. Comparisons were made between pretest and posttest assessments, as well as to a control group (n = 64) of college students not exposed to the campaign. The Rethink campaign resulted in more negative attitudes toward prescription stimulant misuse, as well as decreased perceptions of descriptive norms. Practical implications for intervention designers and researchers are discussed in light of both the campaign’s successes and failures.

Keywords:

• Campaign
• College Students
• Prescription Stimulant Misuse
• Theory of Planned Behavior

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. There were 21 participants across the five focus groups. These participants were recruited using network and convenience sampling, and received extra credit for participating in 30–45 minute focus group discussions. Most participants were female (57.1%) and White/Caucasian (61.9%). The most common class rank amongst our participants was first years at 38.1%, followed by juniors (33.3%), then sophomores (23.8%), and then finally seniors (4.8%). Regarding prescription stimulant misuse behaviors, 95.2% of participants had not been diagnosed with ADHD, and so only 4.8% of our focus group had been prescribed medication. Additionally, we asked if they had ever sold it to another person, and if they had taken a prescription stimulant medication that they had not been prescribed (within the last six months). While no one in our focus group reported that they had distributed a prescribed medication, 14.3% of people reported having taken a stimulant medication that they did not have a prescription for.

2. After providing a brief description of the campaign, the moderator presented students (one at a time) with five message concepts developed in the Fall 2017 semester. These message concepts concerned physical side effects of misusing stimulant medication (e.g., erectile dysfunction), psychological side effects (e.g., depression), the risk of physical and psychological addiction, the association between misuse and lower GPAs, and statistics on the number of college students who actually misuse (in order to address subjective norms/normative fallacies). These five message concepts were presented to participants in two forms: with realistic photo images and using emojis. After viewing each of these five message concepts in their two forms and recording their initial reactions, participants were asked the following questions by the moderator.

• Which message or messages are the most interesting to you? Which of these are you MOST likely to tell someone else about today?

• Which message or messages are the LEAST interesting?

• Which message or messages (if any) would actually change your opinion of misuse of prescription stimulants for studying?

• Which message or messages (if any) do you think would change the opinions or behaviors of OTHER college students?

• Which message or messages is the most relatable to you as a college student?

• Would you react negatively to any of these messages (e.g., make fun of, ridicule)? Do any of these messages offend you? If so, why?

• Do you have any idea for improving these messages to achieve our goals?.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by a Graduate Student Scholarly/Creative Research Grant from the Health and Strategic Communication M.S. program at Chapman University.