A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Attitudes Toward Alcohol Among French and United States College Students

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to compare attitudes toward alcohol in two Western cultures with traditionally distinct drinking patterns, the United States and France. France is generally considered as the greatest world consumer of alcoholic beverages whereas the United States is ranked lower with a different drinking typology. A 14-scale semantic differential was administered to 295 first-year college students at the University of Lille in France and to 242 freshman and sophomore college students in the United States. Data were analyzed by means of a discriminant analysis. After the final step of a stepwise entry of variables, 11 of the 14 adjective pairs remained in the analysis, producing a highly significant function. This function yielded an overall accuracy of classification of 79%. Results were congruent with previous findings suggesting overpermissive attitudes toward alcohol among the French respondents and more ambivalent attitudes toward alcohol among American subjects.