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The role of sex-specific normative beliefs in undergraduate alcohol use
Dennis L Thombs1, Jennifer Ray-Tomasek, Cynthia J Osborn
1Health Promotion Program, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242-0001, USA. dthombs@kent.edu
Objectives:
To create explanatory models of 3 undergraduate drinking practices based on sex-specific norms.
Methods:
An electronic, student survey at one Mid-western university produced a representative sample of college students.
Results:
Multivariate analyses indicated that close-friend norms were the best predictors of drinking frequency, quantity, and drunkenness. With one exception, typical student (or distal) norms had no significant relationship to drinking. Opposite-sex norms had associations with drinking above and beyond that explained by same-sex norms.
Conclusions:
The findings challenge the current application of the popular social norms approach that relies on distal drinking norms to provide normative feedback.
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