Perceived peer norms and alcohol use among college students in China

Currently, there has been little research on peer drinking norms with non-English speaking college populations. Using a Chinese college student sample, the present study investigated perceived peer norms and their associations with individual alcohol-related behaviors.

Past six-month drinkers (n = 436, 50% men, mean age = 20.49) recruited from one college in China took an anonymous paper-and-pencil survey. To examine the differences in alcohol-related behaviors among groups, one-way repeated measures analysis of variance and chi-square tests were conducted. To investigate the associations between perceived peer norms and individual alcohol-related behaviors, sequential linear and logistic regression analyses were conducted.

There were overall mean differences in alcohol use among participants, perceived best friends, and perceived average student for both men (F (1.98, 421.06) = 13.12, p < .001) and women (F (1.89, 399.70) = 5.79, p < .01). The proportion of best friends perceived as having had heavy episodic drinking was higher than that of participants who had had heavy episodic drinking (χ² (1, N = 415) = 61.85, p < .001). So was the proportion of the average student perceived as having had heavy episodic drinking (χ² (1, N = 414) = 68.17, p < .001). After controlling for demographic variables, perceived peer alcohol use explained 17% of the variance in individual alcohol use; perceived peer heavy episodic drinking contributed to 2.6 to 3.6 times higher odds of participants' reporting heavy episodic drinking.

Replication research is needed to inform social norms interventions for Chinese college students.