Citation

Neighbors C, Oster-Aaland L, Bergstrom RL, Lewis MA. J. Stud. Alcohol 2006; 67(2): 282-289.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Box 356560, Seattle, Washington 98195-6560, USA. claytonn@u.washington.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

16562411

PMCID

PMC2459312

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Negative alcohol-related consequences often occur during specific events and in specific contexts (e.g., 21st birthday celebrations and tailgating [pregaming] parties held before American football games). A lack of available event- and context-specific interventions suggests the need to better understand factors associated with heavy drinking in these contexts, with an eye toward developing specific interventions. The purpose of this research was to lay the foundation for developing personalized normative feedback interventions for 21st birthday celebratory drinking and tailgating drinking by evaluating whether students overestimate norms in these specific contexts, as they do more generally. METHOD: Perceived descriptive norms and alcohol consumption were assessed at event- and context-specific levels in two studies. Study 1 included 119 students turning 21 years old who reported their 21st birthday drinking behavior and estimated the typical number of drinks consumed by students celebrating their 21st birthday. Study 2 included 140 undergraduates drawn from a stratified random sample who reported their behavior regarding drinking and tailgating and their perceived norms for typical drinking and tailgating behavior. RESULTS: Results from Study 1 revealed that students overestimated peer drinking during 21 st birthday celebrations, and this overestimation was associated with heavier drinking on one's own 21st birthday. In Study 2, students underestimated the percentage of tailgaters who drank but overestimated typical consumption. Overestimation was consistently associated with heavier drinking during tailgating. CONCLUSIONS: Successful correction of general normative misperceptions has been shown to reduce drinking in other research. Documentation of normative misperceptions for specific events and contexts provided by these results represents an important step in developing event- and context-specific interventions utilizing specific normative feedback.