Using Media to Shift Social Norms of Violence Among Youth
Condition: Violence
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The project will utilize a quasi-experimental design to examine the effectiveness of a
      community-level, three-year social norming campaign aimed at changing norms of violence among
      youth 10-24, with West Louisville (WL) as the intervention community and East Nashville,
      Tennessee as the control community. The project will address the following research questions
      (RQs):

      RQ1: To what extent is a social norming campaign effective in changing the descriptive and
      injunctive norms of violence among youth in WL?

      RQ2: To what extent are the descriptive and injunctive norms of violence among youth in WL
      related to violent behavior (by type)?

      RQ3: To what extent is a social norming campaign effective in reducing population rates of
      youth violence in WL?

      RQ4: Which forms of media are most effective in reaching youth of different ages with
      campaign messages?

      RQ5: How is community readiness related to implementation of a community-level social norming
      campaign?

      RQ6: How is community capacity related to implementation of a community-level social norming
      campaign?

      RQ7: How does community capacity to address youth violence change over time with the
      implementation of a community-level social norming campaign?

      RQ8: To what extent is a social norming campaign cost-effective in reducing incidents of
      serious violence among youth?
    

Detailed description: 
      The Center of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention at the University of Louisville (UofL)
      School of Public Health & Information Sciences capitalizes on a specific window of
      opportunity-where there is currently alignment of a public consciousness of the issue of
      youth violence, the availability of expertise to implement a feasible intervention, and
      substantial political will across community sectors to address the issue. This provides an
      ideal context for the creation of the UofL Center for Youth Violence Prevention, allowing us
      to partner with residents and organizations in West Louisville (WL) to develop, implement,
      and evaluate a community-level intervention to reduce youth violence. To this end, we plan to
      achieve five specific aims:

      AIM 1: Strengthen the infrastructure to support youth violence prevention research and
      practice at the University of Louisville.

      AIM 2: Develop, implement and evaluate a community-level social norming campaign to change
      the norms of violence among youth in West Louisville using mass and social media.

      AIM 3: Document the development and implementation of the social norming campaign to improve
      replication and scalability in other settings or communities.

      AIM 4: Evaluate the relationship between community readiness, community capacity, and the
      implementation of the community-level social norming campaign.

      AIM 5: Facilitate knowledge translation and dissemination initiatives to relevant audiences
      (i.e., community, local organizations and leaders, youth violence prevention researchers and
      practitioners, academic peers, and policy-makers) that produce actionable community- and
      policy-level approaches.
    

Intervention name(s): Social norming campaign
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): community-level, three-year social norming campaign, using traditional and emerging media, aimed at changing norms of violence among youth 10-24
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: social norms; youth violence; media