They Drink How Much and Where? Normative Perceptions by Drinking Contexts and Their Association to College Students'Alcohol Consumption

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective: Prior research has shown that normative perceptions of others' drinking behavior strongly relates to one's own drinking behavior. Most research examining the perceived drinking of others has generally focused on specifi city of the normative referent (i.e., gender, ethnicity). The present study expands the research literature on social norms by examining normative perceptions by various drinking contexts. Specifi cally, this research aimed to determine if college students overestimate peer drinking by several drinking contexts (i.e., bar, fraternity/sorority party, non-fraternity/sorority party, sporting event) and to examine whether normative perceptions for drinking by contexts relate to one's own drinking behavior specifi c to these contexts. Method: Students (N = 1,468; 56.4% female) participated in a web-based survey by completing measures assessing drinking behavior and perceived descriptive drinking norms for various contexts. Results: Findings demonstrated that students consistently overestimated the drinking behavior for the typical same-sex student in various drinking contexts, with the most prominent being fraternity/sorority parties. In addition, results indicated that same-sex normative perceptions for drinking by contexts were associated with personal drinking behavior within these contexts. Conclusions: Results stress the importance of specifi city of social norms beyond those related to the normative referent. Clinical implications are discussed in terms of preventions and intervention efforts as well as risks associated with drinking in a novel context. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 72,

Context matters: Student-perceived binge drinking norms at faculty-level relate to binge drinking behavior in higher education

“…ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 13 and communicate personal values, and how they perceive norms about drinking [1, 9,10]. Our results are consistent with these studies by showing that faculties as environmental structure relate to regular binge drinking, independent from individual factors.…”

“…Effects of same-sex and opposite-sex perceived binge drinking norms at faculty-level were separately estimated (in model 4a and 4b, respectively), also because of multicollinearity between these variables. All analyses were performed separately for male and female students, because students are mainly influenced by sex-specific norms and differently perceive norms according to sex [12][13][14]. The variance partition coefficient (VPC) was calculated with the formula σ² uo /(σ² uo +π²/3), in which σ² uo is the variance of the faculty-level error (u 0j ) and π²/3 equals the variance of a logistic distribution (i.e., the individual-level error (e ij ) distribution under a link function) [36].…”

“…However, students often overestimate the actual drinking norms in these networks [9][10][11], which often encourage them to drink more alcohol than they would otherwise do [9,10]. Male students usually have higher misperceptions of existing drinking norms than female students [12] and these misperceptions generally refer to same-sex students [13,14].…”

Prevalence and Psychosocial Correlates of Party-Drug Use and Associated Problems among University Students in the Netherlands

“…Many authors report that social norms regarding substance use highly affect adolescents and young adults (Dennhardt & Murphy, 2013). College students who overestimate the extent to which their social environment uses a substance (the descriptive norm), tend to use that substance more themselves (e.g., Larimer et al, 2011;Lewis et al, 2011;Martens et al, 2006;McMillan & Conner, 2003). Subjective norms, the extent to which an individual feels it is expected of them to (not) take a substance, can be subdivided into injunctive norms, i.e., the perceived (dis)approval by others regarding substance use, and motivation to comply, i.e., the wish (not) to comply with this norm (Ajzen, 1991).…”

Sexual Assault History and Its Association With the Use of Drinking Protective Behavioral Strategies Among College Women

“…Women with a sexual assault history drink more in general and also engage in more heavy episodic drinking (Miller & Downs, 1995;Ullman, 2003;Wilsnack et al, 2004), putting them at increased risk for sexual re-assault (Gidycz et al, 2007;Testa et al, 2010). The use of drinking protective behavioral strategies (PBS; e.g., alternating alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks) has been associated with decreased alcohol use and risk of alcohol-related negative consequences (Dimeff et al, 1999;Kulesza et al, 2010;Larimer & Cronce, 2007;Lewis et al, 2010Lewis et al, , 2011. Although preliminary evidence suggests that a sexual assault history is associated with not using drinking PBS (Palmer et al, 2010), it is not known whether different types of sexual assault (i.e., childhood vs. adolescent/adult assault and the perpetrators' tactics) differentially predict the use of PBS subtypes.…”