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SOME PARAMETERS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS' RESISTANCE TO PEER PRESSURE TO DRINK
Abstract
While it has long been accepted that college students' drinking is influenced by pressure from peers, little has been done to investigate the nature of this influence. The present study was designed to measure resistance to peer pressure to drink and to ascertain whether resistance was correlated with demographic or other variables in the college student population. In order to measure resistance to pressure to drink, vignettes were developed which presented protagonists in situations in which they experienced pressure from peers to drink. The vignettes presented situations found in a prior study to be common to the college experience. Male and female versions of the stories were developed. Half of the six stories presented to each subject portrayed the protagonist as having had some drinks and wanting to stop drinking and the other half showed the main character as not wanting to drink to that occasion. Subjects were asked to rate the likelihood that the character would not drink and the likelihood that the subject him/herself, in that type of situation, would not drink. Subjects also rated the likelihood that they would want to drink and their comfort in that type of social situation. The sample was composed of undergraduates at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in the Fall, 1978 semester. A random sample of 5% of that population was obtained and sent questionnaires. After two mailings 548 usable questionnaires were obtained, representing a return rate of 66.34%. Resistance to pressure to drink (RPD) scores were analyzed in relation to subjects' age, gender, year in school, living unit, religious background, parents' drinking habits, and best friends' drinking habits. Students' motives for drinking, quantity-frequency of alcohol consumption and social ease were also analyzed relative to RPD scores. Desire to refrain from drinking (DRD) was similarly studied. Statistically significant relationships were found between RPD and the following variables: Gender of subjects, year in school, living unit, motives for drinking, quantity-frequency of consumption, social ease, and desire to refrain from drinking. Age of respondent, childhood religion, parents' drinking habits, and best friends' drinking habits did not attain significant levels of correlation to resistance scores. The results on some of the variables were conceptualized as being part of a present versus past influences dichotomy. That is, those variables reflecting the influence of immediately present factors (with the exception of best friends' drinking habits) were found to be significantly correlated with resistance to pressure while those reflecting factors at work in the students' past experiences did not reach significant correlations. It was suggested, therefore, that the students' present environment and the pressures and influences in it are more important in determining whether the student resists peer pressure to drink than are background variables. Socialization was also suggested as a major influence on resistance to pressure to drink. The greater resistance of women as compared to men and the difference in resistance levels among different living units were seen as examples of the effect of socialization. Factors such as comfort in social situations and individual psychological needs were also discussed as influences on resistance to peer pressure. The implications of these findings for the development of alcohol education programs was discussed. It was suggested that programs be tailored to specific target populations. The presentation of resistance to peer pressure as a form of assertiveness was suggested as a way of removing the stigma from the non-drinker and making moderation a more acceptable behavior among college students.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy
Recommended Citation
SHORE, ELSIE ROCHELLE, "SOME PARAMETERS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS' RESISTANCE TO PEER PRESSURE TO DRINK" (1981). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8120172.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8120172