Beliefs about alcohol and the college experience as moderators of the effects of perceived drinking norms on student alcohol use

ABSTRACT Many students view the abuse of alcohol as integral to the student role. Thus, they feel entitled to drink heavily without sanction. OLS regression was used to assess the extent to which these beliefs about alcohol and the college experience moderate the effects of descriptive and injunctive campus drinking norms on students' levels of alcohol consumption. Overall, respondents who perceived that same-sex students on their campus drank heavily tended to drink heavily themselves. This relationship was, however, strongest among individuals who viewed the abuse of alcohol as part of being a student. Although general injunctive norms were not themselves associated with levels of alcohol use, the perception that campus drinking was an acceptable activity increased levels of alcohol consumption among individuals who associated the student role with drinking. These results are discussed with reference to research on norm corrective initiatives and the anthropological literature on transitory statuses and rites of passage. ********** Concerns about high rates of alcohol-related harms have prompted the institutionalization of programs designed to reduce the abuse of alcohol by students at many of this nation's colleges and universities. Despite these efforts, high rates of heavy or binge drinking have persisted (Wechsler et al., 2002) and even increased in recent years. In 2005, 45% of college undergraduates reported consuming five or more drinks in a sitting within the past month, an increase of about 3% since the late 1990s (Hingson, Zha & Weitzman, 2009). One social-psychological factor that contributes to the persistence of abusive drinking practices on college campuses is the exaggerated belief among students that heavy drinking is both a common and accepted activity at their school (Borsari & Carey, 2001). Since students tend to overestimate the extent to which their peers use alcohol and view alcohol use as desirable, they often increase their own levels of consumption which perpetuates the perception that drinking is acceptable (Prentice & Miller, 1993). A second key contributor to high rates of binge drinking among college undergraduates is of a more structural origin and reflects the nature of the student role itself. In contemporary society, the college years are viewed as a sort of holding period between adolescence and more mature adulthood. Lacking formalized rites of passage embedded within family and religion that symbolize the transition to adulthood within primitive cultures (Van Gennep, 1960), students have created their own secularized rituals within the context of the university. These rituals, which often involve the use of alcohol and drugs, serve functions similar to rites of passage in less developed societies (Butler, 1993). Rites of passage consist of three stages: separation, liminality, and reassimilation, during which individuals are separated from and then reintegrated into the larger society as they transition from one status to another (Van Gennep, 1960). It is during the second, liminal, stage that individuals are segregated from and perceived as distinct from the broader community, and the normative constraints characteristic of society lose much of their regulatory power (Turner, 1969; Van Gennep, 1960). From an anthropological perspective, the college years can be viewed as a liminal phase in the transition to adulthood (Butler, 1993; Tsuda, 1993). As is typical of individuals in a transitory stares (Turner, 1969; Van Gennep, 1960), students are given a kind of latitude not readily accorded to other individuals. Given their interstructural position, they are viewed as temporarily exempt from the standards of conduct that govern behavior among more mature adults. Thus, they feel free to abuse alcohol and behave in ways while intoxicated that would be considered highly inappropriate for members of other social groups. …