Everyone says it's ok: adolescents' perceptions of peer, parent, and community alcohol norms, alcohol consumption, and alcohol-related consequences.
An adolescent's perception of norms is related to her or his engagement in alcohol-related behaviors. Norms have different sources, such as parents, peers, and community. We explored how norms from different sources were simultaneously related to different alcohol-related behaviors (current drinking, drunkenness, heavy episodic drinking, driving under the influence or riding with a impaired driver, and alcohol-related nonviolent consequences) using data collected in 2004 from 6,958 adolescents from 68 communities in five states. Results revealed that parent, friend, and community norms were related to adolescents' alcohol-related behavior, but the strength of these impacts varied across behaviors. The pattern of results varied when the analysis relied on all adolescents or just those who had consumed alcohol in the last year.
Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157, USA. esong@wakehealth.edu
Eun-Young
EY
Song
Andrew P
AP
Smiler
Kimberly G
KG
Wagoner
Mark
M
Wolfson
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D010379:Peer Group; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012307:Risk Factors; D012938:Social Perception; D014481:United States