Expectancies as mediators of the effects of social influences and alcohol knowledge on adolescent alcohol use: A prospective analysis.

Abstract

Expectancies play an important role in the generation of adolescent alcohol use. However, few studies have precisely elucidated their role when specified with other prominent measures of social influences, which may also independently promote alcohol use. Three-year panel data and path-analytic techniques were used to test a model positing that social reinforcement expectancies mediate the effects of perceived friends' alcohol use, friends' alcohol attitudes, and knowledge of near-term health effects and alcohol prevalence on both contemporaneous and subsequent alcohol involvement. Evidence of mediation was obtained with both cross-sectional and longitudinal findings. Perceived peer norms had a direct effect on alcohol use, and knowledge of normative alcohol use had a unique long-term protective influence on later alcohol use. Findings are discussed in terms of a 2-pronged prevention model that (a) integrates principles of social learning theory with expectancy-based, cognitive-behavioral change and (b) emphasizes dissemination of age-appropriate alcohol information in programs that aim to reduce alcohol use. A growing body of literature supports the strength of alcohol-related expectancies as important determinants of adolescent drinking behavior (e.g.

Affective and Personality Risk and Cognitive Mediators of Initial Adolescent Alcohol Use

“…Perceptions of the frequency and intensity with which peers drink is another infl uential factor on adolescent drinking decisions, especially in early adolescence (Scheier and Botvin, 1997;Wood et al, 2001). Consistent with the theory that perceived norms play a causal role in drinking initiation, these beliefs have been shown to predict subsequent initiation of alcohol and marijuana (D' Amico and McCarthy, 2006).…”

Moderators of the association between peer and target adolescent substance use

“…In this study, Henry and colleagues (2005) found that when targets expected alcohol use to cause harm, alcohol use was low, regardless of peer association. However, some authors of longitudinal studies have also emphasized that expectancies could play a more direct role than that of a moderator (e.g., Scheier & Botvin, 1997). These authors showed that alcohol expectancies in grade 9 mediated the link between five predictor variables in grade 8 (past alcohol use, knowledge of alcohol effect, knowledge of alcohol prevalence, friends' attitudes to alcohol and perceived friends' alcohol use) and alcohol use in grade 10.…”

Predictors of alcohol use during the first year of college: Implications for prevention

“…In the college environment, students will establish, test, and refine their new psychological identity (Scheir & Botvin, 1997). Although parents still influence college students' drinking patterns (e.g., Wood, Read, Mitchell, & Brand, 2004), freedom from day-to-day parental control is demonstrated by high rates of illegal (underage) alcohol use (Grant, Harford, & Grigson, 1988;.…”