@article{ref1,
title="Do normative perceptions of drinking relate to alcohol use in U.S. Military Veterans presenting to primary care?",
journal="Addictive behaviors",
year="2012",
author="Aldridge-Gerry, Arianna and Cucciare, Michael A. and Ghaus, Sharfun and Ketroser, Nicole",
volume="37",
number="7",
pages="776-782",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: The current cross sectional study sought to examine whether perceived social normative beliefs are associated with indicators of alcohol use in a sample of alcohol misusing veterans. METHOD: A sample of 107 U.S. Military Veterans presenting to primary care that screened positive for alcohol misuse on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption Items (AUDIT-C) was recruited. Assessment measures were used to examine social normative beliefs and alcohol-related concerns as they relate to indicators of alcohol use at baseline. RESULTS: Our findings indicate mixed support for our two hypotheses in that perceived descriptive norms were associated with alcohol use indicators in the predicted direction; however, this was not the case for alcohol-related concerns. For perceived norms, we found that higher quantity beliefs were significantly related to greater alcohol consumption on a drinking day (p<.01), increased likelihood of dependence (p<.01), and frequency beliefs were significantly related to total number of drinking days (p<.01). Findings for alcohol-related concerns emerged contrary to our hypothesis, with results depicting increased alcohol-related concerns associated with higher alcohol consumption across indicators of use (ps<.01). SUMMARY: Findings of the current study suggest that social normative beliefs, specifically misperceptions about descriptive norms, are significantly associated with alcohol consumption in a sample of alcohol misusing veterans presenting to primary care.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0306-4603",
doi="10.1016/j.addbeh.2012.02.017",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2012.02.017"
}