Using Media to Shift Social Norms of Violence Among Youth

Status:	Recruiting
Healthy:	No
Age Range:	10 - 24
Updated:	12/17/2017
Start Date:	March 2016
End Date:	September 2020
Contact:	Monique Ingram, MPH
Email:	monique.ingram@louisville.edu
Phone:	502-852-0411

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

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.

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

We found this trial at

sites

Vanderbilt University

2201 West End Ave
Nashville, Tennessee 37232

(615) 322-7311