Event- and context-specific normative misperceptions and high-risk drinking: 21st birthday celebrations and football tailgating.

Abstract

Objective-Negative alcohol-related consequences often occur during specific events and in specific contexts (eg., 21st birthday celebrations and tailgating parties). A lack of available eventand context-specific interventions suggests the need to better understand factors associated with heavy drinking in these contexts, with an eye toward developing specific interventions. The purpose of this research was to lay the foundation for developing personalized normative feedback interventions for 21st birthday celebratory drinking and tailgating drinking by evaluating whether students overestimate norms in these specific contexts, as they do more generally.Method-Perceived descriptive norms and alcohol consumption were assessed at event-and context-specific levels in two studies. Study 1 included 119 students turning 21 years old who reported their 21st birthday drinking behavior and estimated the typical number of drinks consumed by students celebrating (their 21st birthday. Study 2 included 140 undergraduates drawn from a stratified random sample who reported their behavior regarding drinking and tailgating and their perceived norms for typical drinking and tailgating behavior.Results-Results from Study 1 revealed that students overestimated peer drinking during 21st birthday celebrations, and this overestimation was associated with heavier drinking on one's own 21st birthday. In Study 2, students underestimated the percentage of tailgaters who drank but overestimated typical consumption. Overestimation was consistently associated with heavier drinking during tailgating.Conclusions-Successful correction of general normative misperceptions has been shown to reduce drinking in other research. Documentation of normative misperceptions for specific events and context provided by these results represents an important step in developing event-and contextspecific interventions utilizing specific normative feedback.Alcohol-related negative consequences experienced by college students typically result from acute drinking episodes during specific event or in specific contexts (e.g., hangover after a party or a fight at a football game), rather than being the result of chronic heavy use over a long period of time (e.g., liver damage). Yet, prevention research has maintained a primarily macro perspective, most commonly assessing and targeting quantity and frequency of consumption and/or number and severity of consequences over some extended period of time (e.g., past 3 months). Similarly, predictors of high-risk drinking tend to be operationalized at

Anticipated Versus Actual Alcohol Consumption During 21st Birthday Celebrations

“…With an average of 10.7 drinks, rates of 21st birthday drinking in the current study were greater than those reported in most studies, 7.42 (SD = 6.62) drinks (Neighbors et al, 2006), 8.73 (SD = 6.41) drinks (Neighbors et al, 2005), approximately 9.35 (SD = 7.53) drinks (Hembroff et al, 2007), and 6.16 (SD = 7.2) drinks (Smith et al, 2006), but were lower than those reported by Rutledge and colleagues (2008;M = 12.87, SD = 8.37). Differences may relate to recruitment strategies, response rates, goals of the study, or regional variability in birthday practices.…”

“…Although available studies have focused primarily on programs to prevent heavy drinking (Hembroff et al, 2007;Neighbors et al, 2005Neighbors et al, , 2006Smith et al, 2006), they provide consistent descriptions of excessive alcohol consumption during 21st birthday celebrations. Approximately 85% of celebrants consume alcohol and drink to dangerous levels, with average blood alcohol concentrations of 0.17% (Neighbors et al, 2005).…”

Event-specific prevention: Addressing college student drinking during known windows of risk

“…Several holidays, including New Year's Eve, St. Patrick's Day, spring break, and Halloween, have been associated with excessive drinking, even among students who do not ordinarily report heavy drinking (Greenbaum et al, 2005;Lee, Maggs, & Rankin, 2006). Nationally prominent sporting events, such as the World Series and the Super Bowl, and local campus events, including orientation, graduation, homecoming, and other festivals and sporting events, especially those with tailgating parties (Neighbors et al, 2006;Nelson and Wechsler, 2003), are of concern as well.…”

“…Students in the monitoring condition reported fewer negative consequences during spring break than the control group, illustrating the power of this simple strategy. Neighbors et al 2005Neighbors et al ,2006McCue et al, 2006;Smith et al, 2006). The most recent evidence suggests that this approach may be effective when students read the information and remember the content (McCue et al, in press).…”

“…First, perceived drinking norms are likely to be different for specific events than for general drinking. For example, on one campus where the perceived norm for typical number of drinks on a single occasion was just over 6 drinks, students estimated that their peers consumed an average of more then 10 drinks when celebrating their 21 st birthday (Neighbors et al, 2006). Moreover, the norms for drinking on New Year's Eve or a 21 st birthday are likely to be very different than norms for a typical weekend.…”