Using Media to Shift Social Norms of Violence Among Youth

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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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
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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.

Official Title
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Changing the Narrative: Using Media to Shift Social Norms of Violence Among Youth in West Louisville

Conditions
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Violence

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Social norming campaign


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: youth between 10 and 24 years of age who reside in one of the nine neighborhoods of West Louisville or in the comparison site of East Nashville Exclusion Criteria: individuals outside the age range (i.e., younger than 10 or older than 24) or who do not live in the intervention or comparison communities

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 10 Years
Maximum Age: 24 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Prevention
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Intervention Group (West Louisville)<br>This group will be exposed to the social norming campaign via traditional, mass, and social media over the three-year intervention period. | Other: Social norming campaign<br>* community-level, three-year social norming campaign, using traditional and emerging media, aimed at changing norms of violence among youth 10-24<br>|
| No Intervention: Control Group (East Nashville)<br>This group will serve as the control group, and measures of social norms and attitudes toward violence will be compared between this group and the intervention group. | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Proportion of youth who report descriptive norms that promote violence as measured by our school survey | Survey will assess population level changes in descriptive norms among youth in the intervention group related to violence compared to control group | up to 60 months | 
| Proportion of youth who report injunctive norms that promote violence as measured by our school survey | Survey will assess population level changes in injunctive norms among youth in the intervention group related to violence compared to youth in the control group | up to 60 months | 
| Proportion of youth who engaged in violent behavior in the past 12 months as measured by our school survey | Youth engagement in violent behavior (by type of violence) | up to 60 months | 
| Community rates of violence involving youth 10-24 aggregated by police department, emergency department, and school district records | Community-level rates of youth violence (by type of violence) | up to 60 months | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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social norms, youth violence, media