Normative Influences and Alcohol Consumption: The Role of Drinking Refusal Self-Efficacy

Abstract

This article extends the theory of normative social behavior by conceptualizing drinking refusal self-efficacy as an important moderator in the relationship between descriptive norms and drinking intentions and behavior. A study was conducted among Korean high school students (N = 538) to assess their normative perceptions, drinking refusal self-efficacy, and drinking intentions. We found a significant association between self-efficacy and drinking intentions and behavior, as well as an interaction effect between self-efficacy and descriptive norms on drinking intentions and behavior. Having stronger efficacy appears to mitigate the harmful effects of descriptive norms on drinking intentions and behavior. Implications for school-based interventions are also discussed.

Notes

¹The laws pertaining to the punishment for selling alcoholic beverage to underage youths provide jail time and/or fine less than $10,000 (Korean Ministry of Gender Equality & Family, 2010).

²To provide representation from the different districts, four high schools were selected. The current study participants are representative of the four high school populations. Of the four high schools, two high schools are private, exclusively male high schools and the other two high schools are co-ed schools. Of the two co-ed schools, one was a private school and the other was a public school. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (2010), there are more private schools (64%) than public schools in metropolitan Seoul. One of the co-ed school principals observed that drinking is more problematic among boys, and he preferred male students to be the sample for the current study. As a result, male students were recruited from all four schools and female students were recruited from one school. Of the total high school student population in metropolitan Seoul, female students are approximately 47% (Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, 2010) and our data include approximately 32% females.

³The current study measured the father's and mother's education levels in order to estimate household socioeconomic status. According to Afifi and her colleagues (2007), parents may keep more information private (e.g., financial information) to protect their children. Given that parents in Eastern cultures are conservative and authoritative (Hofstede & Bond, 1984), it is likely that not all parents reveal their salary information to their children. To evaluate socioeconomic status, income, education levels, and occupation are typically examined (Winkleby, Jatulis, Frank, & Fortmann, 1992), and we used parents' education levels to tap into respondents' socioeconomic status.