Plans to Drink Influenced by Social Setting
This study examined whether intended social contexts for drinking were associated with positive or negative alcohol expectancies for daily-level drinking by college students. Participants included in the analyses were 323 students, ages 18 to 24 years, enrolled at a 4-year university in the Pacific Northwest. They were asked to report each afternoon whether they planned to drink alcohol later that day. If so, they were further asked how much they intended to drink, whether they plan to drink alone or with others, whether they plan to drink at home or at a bar/party, and their positive and negative expectancies of alcohol use that evening. Results showed that students reported greater positive alcohol expectancies on days when they intended to drink with others vs. alone and in those instances where they intended to drink at a bar or party vs. at home. This study suggests that intended drinking contexts may be important to address in event-level interventions to reduce high-risk drinking in young adults.
This paper, “The association between intended drinking contexts and alcohol expectancies in college students: A daily diary study,” was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and published in the journal Addictive Behaviors.
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