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ABSTRACT
Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess discrepancies between estimated peer and personal drinking behavior and to determine associations between perceptions of peer and personal drinking behavior among university students from Hungary (HU), Lithuania (LT), and the Slovak Republic (SK). Methods: 2,554 freshman university students completed an online questionnaire on the frequency of their personal alcohol use, the number of heavy drinking occasions and on their perception concerning the corresponding drinking behavior of a typical student. Associations between perceived peer and personal use were analyzed by means of logistic regression, adjusting for sex. Results: The majority of students across all countries thought their peers drink more frequently and are more often involved in heavy drinking occasions than themselves. Students who perceived the frequency of peer alcohol use to be higher were more likely to drink alcohol twice a week or more often (SR: OR = 3.81, 95% CI = 2.51–5.79; LT: OR = 3.16, 95% CI = 2.11–4.75; HU: OR = 2.10, 95% CI = 1.53–2.87) compared with students who drink alcohol monthly or less. Those who perceived the number of peer heavy drinking occasions as high were more likely to report heavy drinking weekly or more often (SR: OR = 3.16, 95% CI = 1.92–5.20; LT:OR = 3.56, 95% CI = 2.14–5.94; HU:OR = 1.41, 95% CI = 0.79–2.51) compared with students who report heavy drinking less than monthly. Conclusions/Importance: University students perceived peer alcohol use to be higher than their personal use. Given the association between perceptions and personal alcohol use, future research should investigate if targeting perceptions in the surveyed countries may have an impact on alcohol use.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Stefanie M. Helmer
Dr. Stefanie M. Helmer is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology in Bremen, Germany, Department of Prevention and Evaluation. Her research focus is on health intervention research with emphasis on misperceptions and social norms.
Rene Sebena
Rene Sebena, Ph.D., is Lecturer at the Department of Psychology, Pavol Jozef Safarik University in Kosice, Slovakia. He has taken part and responsibility for the completion of several Slovak research projects assessing health and health-related behaviors among university students. His research is focused on identification of risk/protective factors for substance use. He is particularly focused on the role of self-regulation and perceived self-efficacy within the health behavior change process.
John McAlaney
Dr. John McAlaney is a Senior Lecturer and Chartered Psychologist at Bournemouth University in the United Kingdom. His research interests include social norms, misperceptions and participation in risky behaviors.
Janina Petkeviciene
Dr. Janina Petkeviciene is a Professor at the Department of Preventive Medicine and a chief researcher at the Institute of Health Research of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. Her research interests include health behavior monitoring, epidemiology of noncommunicable chronic diseases and preventive medicine. She participated in WHO coordinated Country-wide Integrated Noncommunicable Disease Intervention (CINDI) programme, Finbalt Health Monitor project, in several projects supported by the European Public Health Programme and in FP7 projects. She is a principal investigator of Student Life cohort in Europe (SLiCE) study in Lithuania.
Ferdinand Salonna
Dr. Ferdinand Salonna is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Active Living, Faculty of Physical Culture, Palacky University in Olomouc. His research focus is on inequalities in health and health-related behavior among children and investigating environmental correlates of physical activity.
Andrea Lukács
Dr. Andrea Lukács is an Associated Professor at the Institute of Basic Health Sciences of the Faculty of Health Care, University of Miskolc, Miskolc, Hungary. Her research interests include health related quality of life, physical activity and physical fitness in patients with chronic diseases, as well as health related behavior among adolescent and university students.
Rafael T. Mikolajczyk
Dr. Rafael T. Mikolajczyk, MSc, is Associate Professor at the Hannover Medical School and head of the Research Group “Epidemiological and Statistical Methods” at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig, Germany. His research focus is on epidemiological and statistical methods and their applications in social epidemiology, clinical epidemiology, and epidemiology of infectious diseases.
