Resisting Peer Pressure: Characteristics Associated With Other-Self Discrepancies in College Students' Level of Alcohol Consumption

• NCJ Number: 218275
• Journal: Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2007 Pages: 35-62
• Author(s): Lizabeth A. Crawford; Katherine B. Novak
• Date Published: March 2007
• Length: 28 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the relationship between a cluster of variables (parental attitudes, family members' drinking patterns, concerns about social image, gender, and fraternity/sorority affiliation) and college students' susceptibility to peer pressure regarding alcoholic beverage consumption, as measured by a comparison of one's own drinking patterns in relation to that of others.

Abstract

The study found that those college students whose drinking patterns were closest to what they regarded as typical for same-sex peers at their school had a strong desire for social acceptance, a family history of alcohol abuse, and a tendency to vary their behaviors according to criteria for acceptance in varying social contexts. Students not affiliated with a fraternity or sorority who consciously limited their alcohol intake to avoid negative outcomes, on the other hand, drank substantially less than what they perceived to be the norm for their gender, suggesting that they were able to resist peer pressure to consume higher levels of alcohol. Given the importance of understanding students' motivations for using alcohol in the development and implementation of effective interventions, the identification of characteristics associated with susceptibility to peer influence should have a variety of applications. During the fall of 2002, 293 undergraduate college students of traditional college age completed a comprehensive survey. It measured students' demographic characteristics, alcohol use, and a range of social-psychological indicators. The latter included gender and fraternity/sorority affiliation, parental disapproval of alcohol use, public self-consciousness and self-presentational tendencies, and reasons for not drinking. The dependent variable was a gender-specific measure of one' own drinking patterns compared to perceptions of the drinking levels of others (measure of susceptibility to peer influence regarding drinking). 3 tables, 3 figures, and 41 references