Perceived peer norms have also been found to have more influence on one’s drinking decisions than parents or resident advisors ( Perkins, 2002).
These have been found to be the strongest correlate of alcohol consumption by college students when compared with other variables such as demographics (race, gender, year in school or fraternity/sorority membership), alcohol expectancies, or drinking motives ( Neighbors, Lee, Lewis, Fossos, & Larimer, 2007 Perkins, Haines, & Rice, 2005). Descriptive norms are used to describe how much individuals within a group actually drink (behavior), while injunctive norms refer to widespread beliefs as to how much an individual ought to drink (attitudes). In the highly social environment of college life, alcohol use has been strongly linked to the normative behaviors (or perceived behaviors) of others ( Borsari & Carey, 2003 Perkins, 2002). Currently, work has been progressing on two particularly promising fronts: personal motivators from within, and social motivators from without. These points underscore the need to explore gender issues in alcohol use, especially the motivational factors driving women’s drinking. A nationwide study found that 35.8% of college women reported driving after drinking, 30.2% missing a class, 22.5% having unplanned sexual activity, and 19.8% experienced five or more problems due to alcohol use ( Wechsler, Dowdall, Maenner, Gledhill-Hoyt, & Lee, 1998). A woman’s odds of experiencing sexual aggression are 3 to 9 times higher on days when she’s consumed alcohol ( Parks & Fals-Stewart, 2004), and more than 65% of the women involved in a sexual assault had been consuming alcohol at the time ( Frintner & Rubinson, 1993). Alcohol use has also been found to be a significant risk factor for sexual and other consequences. This differential vulnerability may explain the greater risk of alcohol-related damage to the liver, heart, and brain displayed by female drinkers ( NIAAA, 1999). With less water in their bodies to dilute alcohol, and less of the stomach enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase to break it down, women achieve higher blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) in less time than men consuming the same amount of alcohol ( NIAAA, 1999). This trend holds troublesome implications when considering the physiological differences that make women more vulnerable than men to the effects of alcohol. The prevalence of heavy episodic alcohol use (defined as four or more drinks for women, five or more for men) was 24% higher in men than women in 1986 and dropped to 16% in 1997 ( O’Malley & Johnston, 2002). Furthermore, longitudinal data suggest that women may be closing the gender gap. For example, in the 1950s only 6% of college women reported drinking once a week ( Straus & Bacon, 1953), yet in 2001, nearly 17% reported consuming alcohol 10 or more times in the past month ( Wechsler et al., 2002). This increase has been particularly apparent in adolescents and college students. These results suggest that reflective normative feedback may offer a powerful new tool for female-targeted interventions.Īlthough traditionally men drink more than women, over the past 30 years women have steadily increased their consumption ( Johnston, O’Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2007 O’Malley & Johnston, 2002). Results showed that females overestimate the amount of alcohol males want their female friends, dating partners, and sexual partners to drink, and that this misperception was associated with their drinking behavior, even after controlling for perceived same-sex norms. Males answered the same questions, stating their actual preferences. Females answered questions regarding the amount of alcohol they believe a typical male would like his female friends, dates, or romantic partners to drink. Heterosexual undergraduate students from two universities participated in this project. Research suggests that these perceived “reflective” normative preferences may be particularly salient among college women, who may drink in pursuit of intimate relationships and positive attention from male peers.
Less studied are the effects of perceived preferences from the opposite sex on alcohol use that is, the behaviors an individual believe the opposite sex prefers from them. Misperceptions of peer drinking norms have been found to be strongly associated with individual drinking behavior, especially for proximal reference groups such as same-sex friends.