Assessing High-Risk Behaviors

A variety of valid and reliable student surveys can measure risky behaviors. Effective assessment requires analyzing the data from several perspectives and searching for trends within subpopulations, such as academic colleges, residence halls, athletic teams and clubs, student organizations, and fraternities and sororities.

Looking beyond the behaviors themselves can help assess the environmental influences that may be enabling behaviors, such as high-risk promotions, rituals, and practices; ineffective policies, enforcement, or adjudication; apathy or encouragement from college faculty or staff; lack of intervention by fellow student bystanders; or spaces and places across campus where unsafe behaviors can occur. Connecting these environmental elements to behavior data enables the campus to change behavior by changing these elements.

Research has found a direct relationship between the perceptions students have about what is considered normal behavior by fellow students and the adoption of high-risk behaviors. Many student surveys include measurement of normative perceptions, attitudes toward high-risk behavior, and perceptions of campus policies and messages. These data can be used to correct misperceptions and change prevailing beliefs and attitudes that contribute to an unsafe environment.

Engs, R. C., Diebold, B. A., & Hansen, D. J. (1996). The drinking patterns and problems of a national sample of college students, 1994. Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education, 41(3), 13–33.