Addresses Individual and Group Norms That Support Health-Enhancing Behaviors

Description: An effective curriculum (a) provides instructional strategies and learning experiences to help students accurately assess the level of risk-taking behavior among their peers (for example, how many of their peers use illegal drugs) and to correct misperceptions of peer and social norms, (b) emphasizes the value of good health, and (c) reinforces health-enhancing attitudes and beliefs.¹

This characteristic focuses on reinforcing and promoting healthy social norms and getting students to believe that practicing healthy behaviors is the “cool” thing to do. This can be accomplished in several different ways.

First, it is important to provide information that helps students accurately assess levels of risk and protective behaviors by their peers or youth who share similar characteristics and experiences (e.g., age, sex, gender identity, race, ethnicity, or geographic region). When presenting health-behavior data to students, it is important to report local data when possible. Many local health departments, and even school districts, may have available data on student health risk and protective behaviors. Data should be presented in a positive way, meaning it describes the protective or beneficial behavior or outcome you want students to engage in. For example, if 25% of students in grade 10 in their school district are current alcohol users, it should be reported to students that 75% of their peers are not current alcohol users. Presenting data in this way can help promote and reinforce health-enhancing norms around a certain behavior.

Second, it is important to correct misperceptions of peer and social norms, sometimes called “perceived norms.” Perceived norms are what people think others are doing or believe. Perceived norms can be based on what people see and hear around them (e.g., from family members, peers, school staff, people in the community, or media outlets), and they are reinforced when people receive information from various sources. It is common for preadolescents and adolescents to believe that most or all of their peers are participating in risky behavior, like drinking alcohol, because of what they see, hear, or have been told by someone. Using accurate and reliable health data about adolescent behavior is critical to correct misperceptions about peer and social norms. 

Third, it is important to emphasize the value of good health and to reinforce health- enhancing attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. The teacher can help accomplish this by modeling health-enhancing behaviors, such as drinking water (instead of soft drinks) during class, and by encouraging students to adopt or maintain healthy behaviors. Teachers can also allow for opportunities for students to share their health-enhancing attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors throughout lessons. For example, the curriculum may include advocacy- related projects for students to develop persuasive messages to encourage their peers to adopt or maintain healthy behaviors.

Example 1

For this example, the unit that is being taught is Personal Health and Wellness, and the HBO for this lesson is PHW-4: Prevent damage from the sun (HECAT Appendix 3).

1. Promoting healthy norms in a lesson will typically take place after students have learned the functional information and skills related to the HBO of the lesson. In this example, students have already learned about the importance of using sunscreen and the consequences of not protecting themselves from the sun.
2. To help promote healthy norms related to the HBO of the lesson, students are taught about the skill of advocacy. Advocacy skills empower students with confidence to apply functional health knowledge to persuade others to adopt healthy behaviors. The teacher first explains what advocacy means and then shows examples of advocacy messages.
3. The students are paired up with a classmate and are charged with creating two messages to share on social media. The messages should describe actions to take to protect oneself from exposure to the sun, such as encouraging the use of sunscreen, avoiding indoor tanning beds, and wearing long sleeves and hats when out in the sun.
4. Students share (e.g., text, Instagram, Snapchat) their social media message with five friends.

Example 2

For this example, the unit that is being taught is Violence Prevention, and the HBO for this lesson is V-3: Avoid bullying or being a bystander to bullying (HECAT Appendix 3).

1. Promoting healthy norms in a lesson will typically take place after students have learned the functional information and skills related to the HBO of the lesson. In this example, students have already learned about bullying and have learned the skill of interpersonal communication including “I statements” and how to assertively communicate.
2. Students work in small groups and create a skit about why it is wrong to tease or bully others based on personal characteristics. They will then role-play the skit and demonstrate how to effectively and assertively intervene in a bullying situation. 
3. The skits will be recorded and shared with elementary students.

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