Using Media to Shift Social Norms of Violence Among Youth

Overview

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?

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.