Heavy Episodic Drinking and Alcohol Consumption in French Colleges: The Role of Perceived Social Norms

Abstract

Background: The effect of normative perceptions (social norms) on heavy episodic drinking (HED) behavior is well known in the U.S. college setting, but little work is available in other cultural contexts. The objective of this study is therefore to assess whether social norms of alcohol use are related to HED in France, taking account of other influential predictors.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out among 731 second-year university students in the Paris region to explore the role of 29 potential alcohol use risk factors. The probability of heavy episodic drinking and the frequency of HED among heavy episodic drinkers were modeled independently. Monthly alcohol consumption was also assessed.Results: Of the students, 56% overestimate peer student prevalence of HED (37% for alcohol drinking prevalence). HED frequency rises with perceived peer student prevalence of HED. Other social norms associated with HED are perceived friends' approval of HED (increasing both HED probability and HED frequency) and perceived friend prevalence of alcohol drinking (increasing HED probability only). Cannabis and tobacco use, academic discipline, gender, and the number of friends are also identified as being associated with HED.Conclusions: Overestimation of peer student prevalence is not uncommon among French university students. Furthermore, perceived peer student prevalence of HED is linked to HED frequency, even after adjusting for other correlates. Interventions correcting misperceived prevalences of HED among peer students have therefore the potential to reduce the frequency of HED in this population.

Perception of High Alcohol Use of Peers Is Associated With High Personal Alcohol Use in First-Year University Students in Three Central and Eastern European Countries

“…Our findings, that a high proportion of students estimated the alcohol use behavior of a typical student to be higher than their own self-reported behavior, are consistent (Page et al, 2008) with findings of studies among University students in North-America (Borsari & Carey, 2003;Kypri & Langley, 2003) and Western Europe (Franca et al, 2010;McAlaney & McMahon, 2007). Our findings are also consistent with findings in a study conducted among adolescents in Hungary, Slovak Republic, Czech Republic and Romania (Page et al, 2008) which supports the notion that this is a general pattern.…”

“…In recent years, some European studies have examined misperceptions of alcohol use among University students in the UK (McAlaney & McMahon, 2007) and France (Franca, Dautzenberg, & Reynaud, 2010) and have reported findings comparable to those of NorthAmerican studies.…”

Substance Use among Police Cadets: The Role of Normative Misperceptions

“…Since then, a large number of studies have shown that these so-called normative misperceptions about substance misuse behaviours occur in a variety of countries and settings (Wolfson, 2000;Haines et al, 2003;Kypri & Langley, 2003;Lintonen & Konu, 2004;McAlaney & McMahon, 2007;Bewick et al, 2008;Hughes et al, 2008;Page et al, 2008;Franca et al, 2010). These misperceptions cause worry since people are strongly influenced by what they perceive to be the norms of their peer group; a phenomenon that has been studied extensively in psychology following the work of Asch (1951).…”

A comparison of substance use behaviours and normative beliefs in North-West European university and college students

“…It originates from a study in the American college system, in which it was noted that students tended to overestimate how heavily and frequently their peers drank alcohol (2) . Similar misperceptions have now been documented at numerous college sites in the USA (3,4) and also in student and adolescent populations in Scotland (5) , England (6) , Australia (7) , New Zealand (8) , Finland (9) Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, the Czech Republic (10) , and France (11) . The social norms approach aims to change behaviour by correcting these misperceptions through the use of a variety of mass media campaigns and personal feedback.…”