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The prediction of drinking factors among college students: A cross-cultural comparison
Abstract
Alcohol expectancies have been found to improve upon the ability of demographic and background variables to predict drinking patterns among adolescents (Christiansen and Goldman, 1983) and college students (Brown, 1985). Expectancies were found to significantly increase the variance accounted for in quantity/frequency as well as alcohol problem measures. Smith, Stahl, and Rivers (1990, 1991) studied family environment variables and personality preference variables and results suggest that both predictor sets may prove to be viable predictors of drinking factors among college students. The present study tested this hypothesis using college students samples from the United States and New Zealand. It was expected that alcohol expectancies and demographics would be predictive of the drinking factors in both countries and that measures of family environment and personality preferences would significantly add to their predictive power. Subjects were recruited from introductory psychology students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. Fifty percent of the U.S. population was male and age range of the subjects was from 17 to 35 years old (M = 20.1 years old). The majority of the subjects were caucasian (96.9%), single (93.3%) and had parents who were born and raised in the United States (95.9%). In the New Zealand population, 67.3% of the subjects were female and the age range was from 17 to 48 years old (M = 21.1 years old). The majority of the subjects were caucasian (95.7%), single (84.5%) and had parents who were born and raised in New Zealand (73.9%). Factor analysis of selected items from the Customary Drinking Record (CDR) yielded a four factor model accounting for 57% of the overall variance. Family environment variables and personality preferences were found to be viable predictors of factors of drinking and significantly contributed to models of prediction for both the United States and New Zealand. Optimal predictor sets were selected based on the regression model of each country and then tested on both countries. Results suggest that the inclusion of measures of family environment and personality preference can significantly increase the predictive power of demographic variables and alcohol expectancies in predicting factors of drinking among college students.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy|Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology
Recommended Citation
Smith, Patrick Derek, "The prediction of drinking factors among college students: A cross-cultural comparison" (1991). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9219389.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9219389