Drinking Motives, Perceived Norms, and Adolescents’ Drinking

Abstract

Various cognitive and social factors influence the consumption of alcohol during adolescence. Accurate assessment of the relative importance of these variables is crucial for planning interventions against alcoholrelated problems. This study compared the effects of drinking motives, perceived parent, and peer alcohol consumption on alcohol use in Italian adolescents. We collected the data by means of a self-report questionnaire on a sample of 229 secondary school students who were 15-20 years old. To test the influence of different groups of predictors, we performed three hierarchical regression and one binary logistic regression analyses. We found that perceived norms about drinking influenced adolescents' alcohol consumption: perception of friends' alcohol use was of particular significance, whereas perceived parental norms had an influence only concerning alcoholic beverages with low alcohol content, such as beer. Regarding drinking motives, internal motivations were related to risky drinking, whereas external motivations were not associated with problematic alcohol consumption.

Alcohol binge drinking in adolescence and psychological profile: Can the preclinical model crack the chicken-or-egg question?

“…Hence, individuals drink to obtain positive outcomes or to avoid negative consequences, and they are motivated by internal or external rewards. Accordingly, four categories of drinking motives emerge as final antecedents of drinking behavior: 1. enhancement: to heighten mood or wellbeing (internally generated with positive valence); 2. social: to obtain social rewards (externally generated with positive valence); 3. coping: to attenuate negative emotions (internally generated with negative valence); 4. conformity: to avoid social rejection (externally generated with negative valence) (8).…”

“…Besides, drinking motives can shape drinking patterns, with enhancement and coping motives being the most correlated with ABD (4,(8)(9)(10). The re-enactment of the determinant framework appears to be crucial to the evaluation of the concerning consequences in adolescence, given the "still-going-on" maturation of the brain and the major vulnerability to alcohol during neurodevelopment (11,12).…”

Alcohol Use among High School Learners in the Peri-Urban Areas, South Africa: A Descriptive Study on Accessibility, Motivations and Effects

“…Data were collected using a validated researcher-administered questionnaire, adapted from studies conducted among high school learners [ 17 , 19 , 56 ] and on motivations for alcohol use [ 34 , 36 ]. Data collected included the demographics, accessibility, motivations and effects of alcohol use among learners.…”

“…Adolescence is a developmental period of heightened responsiveness to social rewards, and this implies an increasing desire to fit in among peers [ 33 ]. Drinking motives and perceived peer and parental norms are strong predictors of alcohol use [ 34 ]. Identifying the adolescents’ motivations for their alcohol use has revealed that adolescents consume alcohol when they are having fun with their friends.…”

“…Further literature documents that alcohol use during adolescence is influenced by learning to use alcohol based on social observation of other significant persons’ behaviours (family members, friends, peers, social models), developing positive attitudes towards alcohol and its effects and a result of social imitation and social modelling processes by peer influences (i.e., social learning), as reported by Bențea [ 36 ]. Therefore, personal motivations and perceived social norms influence adolescent alcohol use [ 34 ]; it can be deduced that most adolescents consume alcohol as a result of the pleasure, peer group, and family influence [ 34 , 36 ]. In addition to South Africa [ 17 , 37 ], studies in other countries, such as Israel [ 38 ], Namibia [ 28 , 39 ], and Spain [ 36 ] have confirmed drinking motives and influences of significant persons among adolescents.…”