Change and Stability in Active and Passive Social Influence Dynamics during Natural Drinking Events: A Longitudinal Measurement-Burst Study

We examined the link between social norms and active social influences occurring during natural social drinking contexts. Across 4 yearly measurement-bursts, college students (N = 523) reported daily for 30-day periods on drinking norms, drinking offers, how many drinks they accepted, and personal drinking levels during social drinking events. In contexts where drinking norms were higher, students were more likely to both receive and comply with drinking offers. These acute social influences were highly stable throughout college, but affected men and women differently across time: Women received more drinking offers than men, especially at the beginning of college and when norms were higher, but men complied with more drinking offers per occasion. These effects were not attributable to between-person differences in social drinking motives or drinking levels, nor to within-person patterns of situation-selection. The present work suggests that context-specific drinking norms catalyze active social influence attempts, and further promote compliance drinking.     

Direct and interactive effects of parent,friend and schoolmate drinking on alcohol use trajectories

Objective: This study considered the unique and interactive roles of social norms from parents, friends and schools in predicting developmental trajectories of adolescent drinking and intoxication.

Design and outcome measures: Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which followed adolescents (N = 18,921) for 13 years, we used discrete mixture modelling to identify unique developmental trajectories of drinking and of intoxication. Next, multilevel multinomial regression models examined the role of alcohol-related social norms from parents, friends and schoolmates in the prediction of youths’ trajectory group membership.

Results: Results demonstrated that social norms from parents, friends and schoolmates that were favourable towards alcohol use uniquely predicted drinking and intoxication trajectory group membership. Interactions between social norms revealed that schoolmate drinking played an important moderating role, frequently augmenting social norms from parents and friends. The current findings suggest that social norms from multiple sources (parents, friends and schools) work both independently and interactively to predict longitudinal trajectories of adolescent alcohol use.

Conclusions: Results highlight the need to identify and understand social messages from multiple developmental contexts in efforts to reduce adolescent alcohol consumption and alcohol-related risk-taking.     

Readiness to Change,Social Norms,and Alcohol Involvement Among College Students

The author explored the impact that readiness to change variables have on dimensions of alcohol involvement and how the explanatory power of the variables compares with social norms among college students. Canonical analysis suggested that alcohol intensity and drinking consequences were best explained by the norms for closest friends and contemplation about one's drinking.     

Perceived Norms,Outcome Expectancies,and Collegiate Drinking: Examining the Mediating Role of Drinking Motives

The authors examined the mediational role of drinking motives in explaining the associations among psychosocial antecedents and collegiate drinking. Results indicated that drinking motives partially mediated the relationships between outcome expectancies, perceived norms, alcohol use intensity, and alcohol‐related negative consequences.     

The Relationship Between Parent and Student Religious Coping and College Alcohol Use

The present study examined social support and alcohol norms as mediators of the relationship between religious coping and college drinking (e.g., frequency and heavy drinking). The sample consisted of college students (n = 129) and their parents (n = 113). Religious coping (parent and student) was associated with less frequent alcohol use and less heavy drinking. Using a path model to test direct and indirect effects, the mediators were entered simultaneously and allowed to correlate with each other. Alcohol norms mediated the relationship between religious coping and drinking outcomes. Social support was not a significant mediator. Broader protective implications of religious coping are discussed.     

The Importance of Attitudes in the Prediction of College Students' Intentions to Drink

Fishbein's (1967, 1980) theory of reasoned action was used to test the relative importance of attitudes and subjective norms in predicting undergraduate students' intentions to perform 3 different types of social drinking actions: avoiding drinking, drinking enough to get a slight buzz, and drinking enough to get drunk. A multiple regression paradigm was used to determine the relative effectiveness of attitudes and subjective norms in predicting intentions to perform each of the 3 drinking behaviors. Although attitudes were consistently found to be better predictors of intentions than were subjective norms, the strength of the attitude-intention relation varied widely across the 3 actions. In particular, the attitude-intention correlation was strongest for "drinking enough to get drunk." Findings also suggest that subjective norms, previous behavior, and perceived behavioral control are not important variables for predicting this behavior.     

Meaning in life goal pursuit moderates the effects of social influences on college student drinking

This study sought to examine whether life goal meaning serves as a protective factor against the effects of social influences on hazardous drinking. The sample consisted of 156 college drinkers who had consumed alcohol in the past 30 days. Results indicated that goal meaning moderated the relation between both injunctive norms and direct offers and heavy drinking episodes. Simple slopes' analyses showed that injunctive norms predicted heavy episodic drinking for students with low but not high levels of goal meaning. Direct offers predicted heavy episodic drinking, however, the strength of this association was reduced at high levels of goal meaning. Results suggest that higher levels of goal meaning may buffer the effects of social influences on college student hazardous drinking.     

The influence of confidence on associations among personal attitudes, perceived injunctive norms, and alcohol consumption

Social norms theories hold that perceptions of the degree of approval for a behavior have a strong influence on one's private attitudes and public behavior. In particular, being more approving of drinking and perceiving peers as more approving of drinking, are strongly associated with one's own drinking. However, previous research has not considered that students may vary considerably in the confidence in their estimates of peer approval and in the confidence in their estimates of their own approval of drinking. The present research was designed to evaluate confidence as a moderator of associations among perceived injunctive norms, own attitudes, and drinking. We expected perceived injunctive norms and own attitudes would be more strongly associated with drinking among students who felt more confident in their estimates of peer approval and own attitudes. We were also interested in whether this might differ by gender. Injunctive norms and self-reported alcohol consumption were measured in a sample of 708 college students. Findings from negative binomial regression analyses supported moderation hypotheses for confidence and perceived injunction norms but not for personal attitudes. Thus, perceived injunctive norms were more strongly associated with own drinking among students who felt more confident in their estimates of friends' approval of drinking. A three-way interaction further revealed that this was primarily true among women. Implications for norms and peer influence theories as well as interventions are discussed.     

The identification of deviance: A conceptualization and initial test of a model of social norms

This paper outlines and initially tests a conceptual model of social norms, within the context of a general research framework for examining how deviant behaviour is identified and responded to. Norms are examined vis-a-vis (a) the structure of beliefs and expectancies toward one's own and [deviant] individual's behaviour, and (b) normative focus, representing the social context of behaviour and the nature of the group the norm is shared within. The results showed both of these constituents to be salient to the application of the model to the identification of alcohol abuse, particularly in terms of (i) the relationship between normative structure and the recognition of and evaluation of deviant drinking, (ii) a strong influence of social context on norms and (iii) the finding of powerful differences in normative structure in socio-economically different communities. This latter effect is discussed in terms of the [social ecology] of norms. It is hoped that this model will have heuristic value in expediting theory based studies of both normative regulation, and perceptions of abnormal behaviour.     

The Theory of Reasoned Action as a Model of Children's Health Behavior1

This research examined the applicability of the theory of reasoned action to school‐age children. Using structural equation modeling, we longitudinally modeled children's attitudes, norms, intentions, and behavior with regard to drinking alcohol. Respondents were 1,061 children attending public schools in the northwestern United States. Attitude, norms, and intentions (measured when the children were in 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grades) were used to predict alcohol use 1 year later. Two modifications of the model improved the overall fit at each grade level: separating attitude into 2 dimensions (positive and negative), and adding a path from social norm to behavior. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

State Patty's Day: College Student Drinking and Local Crime Increased on a Student-constructed Holiday

College student alcohol consumption is a major concern, and is known to increase during the celebration of special events. This study examined a student-constructed holiday, State Patty's Day, at a university with a dominant drinking culture using three sources of data - coded data from Facebook groups, daily web surveys from first-year students (N= 227, 51% male, age 18 to 20; 27.3% Hispanic/Latino; of non-Hispanic/Latino, 26.9% of sample European American/White, 19.4% Asian American/Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 15.9% African American/Black, 10.6% more than one race), and criminal offense data from police records. Results indicated that messages about State Patty's Day on Facebook focused on drinking and social aspects of the holiday, such as the social context of drinking, a sense of belonging to a larger community, and the social norms of drinking. These messages were rarely about consequences and rarely negative. On State Patty's Day, 51% of students consumed alcohol, compared to 29% across other sampled weekend days. Students consumed more drinks (M = 8.2 [SD = 5.3] drinks per State Patty's Day drinker) and were more likely to engage in heavy drinking on State Patty's Day, after controlling for gender, drinking motives, and weekend, demonstrating the event-specific spike in heavy drinking associated with this holiday. The impact of this student-constructed holiday went beyond individual drinking behavior; alcohol-specific and other crime also peaked on State Patty's Day and the day after. Event-specific prevention strategies may be particularly important in addressing these spontaneous, quickly-constructed, and dynamic events.     

Using the Black Sheep Effect to reveal normative stakes: The example of alcohol drinking contexts

The present study shows that the paradigm relative to Black Sheep Effect (BSE) may be used to reveal normative stakes whose existence is not clearly identified. To this end, our study focuses on alcohol drinking practices among students, specifically with regard to drinking contexts (solitary vs. group). Our hypothesis was that the drinking norms are determined by their context (i.e. social vs. solitary drinking). More specifically, we suggested that social drinking is viewed by students as pro‐normative, while solitary drinking is viewed as anti‐normative. The results confirmed our hypotheses and enable us to consider that the BSE paradigm has the potential to reveal normative stakes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reason,Recognition, and Internal Critique

Normative political philosophy always refers to a standard against which a society's institutions are judged. In the first, analytical part of the article, the different possible forms of normative criticism are examined according to whether the standards it appeals to are external or internal to the society in question. In the tradition of Socrates and Hegel, it is argued that reconstructing the kind of norms that are implicit in practices enables a critique that does not force the critic's particular views on the addressee and can also be motivationally effective. In the second part of the article, Axel Honneth's theory of recognition is examined as a form of such reconstructive internal critique . It is argued that while the implicit norms of recognition made explicit in Honneth's philosophical anthropology help explain progressive social struggles as moral ones, his theory faces two challenges in justifying internal critique. The Priority Challenge asks for the reasons why the implicit norms of recognition should be taken as the standard against which other implicit and explicit norms are to be judged. The Application Challenge asks why a social group should, by its own lights, extend equal recognition to all its members and even non-members. The kind of functional, prudential, conceptual, and moral considerations that could serve to answer these challenges are sketched.     

Thinking,Drinking, and Driving: Application of the Theory of Reasoned Action to DWI Prevention1

This study drew upon the theory of reasoned action (TRA) to predict the intention to drive while intoxicated (DWI). Four hypotheses were tested using telephone survey data from a random sample of 1,259 adult residents of Bemalillo County, New Mexico. Results showed the TRA to be predictive across a diversity of social groups. Contrary to hypotheses, subjective norms were a more powerful predictor than attitudes, and the perceived severity of DWI penalties was positively correlated with DWI intention, a paradoxical result that was explained with reference to the social environment of likely DWI offenders. The results suggest that anti‐DWI public‐information campaigns should stress the importance of informal social influence against drunk driving, rather than merely the legal penalties for drinking and driving.     

An operant treatment procedure for alcoholics

For many years total abstinence was regarded as the appropriate criterion for the successful treatment of alcoholism. It is suggested that given societal norms for social consumption of alcohol, plus the social reinforcers which maintain beverage alcohol ingestion, social drinking may serve as a realistic treatment goal. The efficacy of a social drinking criterion was clearly demonstrated by Bigelow et al. (1972). Chronic alcoholic in-patients were placed in a choice situation in which they earned the opportunity to participate in an ‘enriched’ environment contingent upon either moderate drinking or abstinence. Subjects overwhelmingly chose the moderate drinking alternative. Results also suggested that moderate drinking is more reinforcing than abstinence for alcoholics. Further support for the moderate drinking concept was rendered by Mills, Sobel and Schaeffer (1971) in a study which made electric shock contingent on gulping drinks, ordering straight alcoholic drinks and ordering and consuming more than three drinks. Time-out (Cohen et al., 1971), positive reinforcement (Cohen et al., 1971) and social contracting procedures (Miller, 1972) have been effectively employed to reduce drinking behavior from maladaptive to adaptive frequencies.

The present study attempts to extend treatment with a controlled drinking outcome to out-patient alcoholics     

Who Will See Me? The Impact of Type of Audience on Willingness to Display Group‐Mediated Attitude–Intention Consistency

The present study examined the role that group norms, group identification, and imagined audience (in-group vs. out-group) play in attitude–behavior processes. University students ( N =187) participated in a study concerned with the prediction of consumer behavior. Attitudes toward drinking their preferred beer, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, group norm, and group identification were assessed. Intentions and perceived audience reactions to consumption were assessed. As expected, group norms, identification, and imagined audience interacted to influence likelihood of drinking one's preferred beer and perceived audience reactions. High identifiers were more responsive to group norms in the presence of an in-group audience than an out-group audience. The present results indicate that audience concerns impact upon the relationship between attitudes and behavior.     

Examination of the mediational influences of peer norms, environmental influences, and parent communications on heavy drinking in athletes and nonathletes.

The present study used perspectives from the general literature on college alcohol consumption to examine mediational influences of peer, environmental, and parental variables on heavy drinking for student athlete and nonathlete samples. Eight hundred thirty-five freshmen who differed in organized sports involvement were compared on heavy drinking outcomes, peer norms, environmental influences, and parental communication. College athletes reported significantly more heavy drinking experiences than nonathletes. Peer norms, environmental influences, and parental communication were all significant mediators of the athlete-heavy drinking relationship. Athletes reported a higher perception of peer drinking, peer approval of drinking, higher alcohol availability, and direct drink offers, which, in turn, were related to higher rates of heavy drinking. Parental communication mediated the athlete-heavy drinking relationship differently, depending on the specific topic of conversation. Discussion surrounding the importance of incorporating a variety of interventions aimed at reducing collegiate athlete drinking on the basis of the peer, environmental, and parental influences observed in the present analyses are presented. Limitations and directions for future research are also noted.     

Daily interpersonal experiences, context, and alcohol consumption: crying in your beer and toasting good times

The authors explored a multidimensional view of drinking, whereby social and solitary drinking represent distinct behaviors associated with positive and negative experiences, respectively. Using daily diary methodology and multilevel analytic strategy, the authors examined, over 30 days, the within-person association of negative and positive experiences and alcohol consumption in different contexts and focused on interpersonal experiences. On days with more negative interpersonal experiences, participants engaged in more solitary drinking (i.e., drinking at home and alone), whereas on days with more positive interpersonal experiences they drank more in social contexts. The authors also demonstrated that individuals high on neuroticism drank more in solitary contexts on days with more negative interpersonal experiences, relative to those with lower neuroticism. These findings lend support to models linking daily drinking motivation and context-dependent drinking behavior.