Community Engagement Manager Tech Stories * Corresponding author 2 Perceived social norms of health behaviours and college engagement in British students Abstract Aims The social norms approach is an increasingly widely used strategy of behaviour and attitude change that is based on challenging misperceptions individuals hold about their peers. Research to date has been carried out predominately in the American college system, with a focus on substance use behaviours. The aim of the current

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... y was to explore peer perceptions of both substance use and other behaviours in a British student sample, as the first step of determining whether the social norms approach may be applicable within Europe. Methods Students at eight Further Education colleges in the UK were surveyed on their personal and perceived peer health and college engagement behaviours and attitudes by means of a printed and online survey. Results Respondents reported a perceived norm of frequency of substance use that was higher than the reported norm. Results relating to the injunctive norms of substance use were mixed but demonstrated that the majority of respondents do not actively approve of tobacco, cannabis or other drug use. Respondents also reported a norm of academic engagement that was more positive than the perceived norm of their peers. Conclusions The results around substance use are consistent with work conducted in the American college system, despite the differences in culture and legislation. In addition there results indicate that there 3 may be similar misperceptions around other areas of health and college engagement. This suggests that the social norms approach may be a viable method of behaviour change in UK students.