The influence of individual and cultural factors on perceptions of alcohol control strategies among university students in Europe

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic profile of respondents in each country: cells report mean (sd) or frequency (%).

		Sample	Denmark	England	Germany	Italy	Portugal	Switzerland
	Range	(n = 1910)	(n = 298)	(n = 388)	(n = 269)	(n = 262)	(n = 356)	(n = 337)
Age	(18–25)	21.1 (2.0)	22.0 (2.0)	19.6 (1.5)	21.6 (2.2)	21.9 (1.8)	20.7 (1.8)	21.8 (2.0)
Gender
Female	.	1375 (71.2%)	204 (68.5%)	283 (72.9%)	204 (75.8%)	195 (74.4%)	249 (69.9%)	240 (71.2%)
Male	.	535 (28.8%)	94 (31.5%)	105 (27.1%)	65 (24.2%)	67 (25.6%)	107 (30.1%)	97 (28.8%)
Ethnicity
White	.	1708 (89.5%)	288 (96.6%)	276 (71.1%)	244 (91.4%)	235 (89.7%)	355 (99.7%)	310 (92.0%)
Other	.	200 (10.5%)	10 (3.4%)	112 (28.9%)	23 (8.6%)	27 (10.3%)	1 (0.3%)	27 (8.0%)
Religion
None	.	714 (43.1%)	80 (51.3%)	203 (56.2%)	147 (56.1%)	97 (41.3%)	84 (26.5%)	103 (31.7%)
Christian	.	868 (52.4%)	75 (48.1%)	107 (29.6%)	108 (41.2%)	134 (57.0%)	231 (72.9%)	213 (65.5%)
Other	.	74 (4.5%)	1 (0.6%)	51 (14.1%)	7 (2.7%)	4 (1.7%)	2 (0.6%)	9 (2.8%)
Sensation-seeking	(1–5)	2.68 (0.74)	2.84 (0.68)	2.91 (0.79)	2.80 (0.63)	2.23 (0.66)	2.44 (0.74)	2.77 (0.66)
AOE positive	(1–5)	3.71 (0.95)	4.09 (0.73)	4.06 (0.74)	3.42 (0.91)	3.68 (0.89)	3.38 (1.15)	3.54 (0.90)
AOE negative	(1–6)	2.82 (0.74)	3.01 (0.59)	2.93 (0.68)	2.87 (0.71)	2.79 (0.69)	2.45 (0.88)	2.87 (0.70)
DRSE	(1–7)	5.64 (1.05)	5.73 (0.88)	5.29 (1.13)	5.72 (0.99)	5.33 (1.09)	5.91 (1.08)	5.84 (0.91)
AUDIT	(0–40)	6.90 (5.34)	9.45 (5.38)	9.97 (6.10)	5.39 (3.91)	5.55 (4.56)	4.70 (4.05)	5.69 (4.59)

AOE: alcohol outcome expectancies; DRSE: Drink refusal self-efficacy; AUDIT: Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test.

Table 2. Perceived effectiveness of alcohol control strategies^a by gender and country (n = 1910).

	Restrictive strategies	Difference	Educational strategies	Difference	Ban sponsorship	Difference
	Mean (sd)		Mean (sd)		Mean (sd)
Gender		F(1,1897) = 38.27, p < .01		F(1,1897) = 42.47, p < .01		F(1,1897) = 19.80, p < .01
Female	4.00 (1.42)	partial η^2 = .02	5.28 (1.35)	partial η^2 = .02	3.46 (2.00)	partial η^2 = .01
Male	3.55 (1.43)		4.81 (1.49)		3.00 (1.96)
Country		F(5,1897) = 12.68, p < .01		F(5,1897) = 18.43, p < .01		F(5,1897) = 2.20, p = .05
Denmark	3.64 (1.40)	partial η^2 = .03	4.11(1.48)	partial η^2 = .05	3.19 (1.84)	partial η^2 = .01
England	3.88 (1.42)		4.57 (1.49)		3.61 (1.97)
Germany	3.71 (1.43)		4.92 (1.39)		3.49 (2.08)
Italy	4.30 (1.44)		5.27 (1.26)		3.23 (2.11)
Portugal	4.23 (1.42)		4.94 (1.63)		3.13 (2.02)
Switzerland	3.48 (1.34)		5.19 (1.29)		3.28 (1.98)
Interaction:		F(5,1897) = 2.43, p = .03		F(5,1897) = 1.96, p = .08		F(5,1897) = 1.22, p = .30
Gender/country		partial η^2 = .01		partial η^2 = .01		partial η^2 < .01
Total	3.87 (1.44)		5.15 (1.40)		3.33 (2.00)

^aRange = 1–7.

Table 3. Correlations between perceived effectiveness of alcohol control strategies and continuous individual-level variables (n = 1910).

Variable	Range	Mean (sd)	Restrictive strategies	Educational strategies	Ban sponsorship
Age	(18–25)	21.14 (2.04)	r = −.03	r = .10	r = −.04
			p = .24	p < .01	p = .11
Sensation seeking	(1–5)	2.68 (0.74)	r = −.18	r = −.07	r = −.05
			p < .01	p < .01	p = .05
Alcohol outcome expectancies: positive	(1–6)	5.89 (3.70)	r = −.18	r = −.08	r = −.06
			p < .01	p < .01	p = .01
Alcohol outcome expectancies: negative	(1–6)	5.00 (2.82)	r = −.03	r = −.03	r = .01
			p = .14	p = .19	p = .56
Drink refusal self-efficacy	(1–7)	5.63 (1.05)	r = .12	r = .14	r = .03
			p < .01	p <.01	p = .20
Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test	(0–40)	6.91 (5.34)	r = −.19	r = −.20	r = −.08
			p < .01	p < .01	p < .01

AOE: alcohol outcome expectancies; DRSE: Drink refusal self-efficacy; AUDIT: Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test.

Table 4. Linear regression to identify multivariate correlates of perceived effectiveness of alcohol control strategies (n = 1910).

	B	s.e.(B)	β	t	Significance
Restrictive strategies
F(6,1903) = 29.09 p < .01
Adjusted R^2 = .08
DRSE	0.04	0.03	0.03	1.26	p = .21
AUDIT	−0.01	0.01	−0.05	−1.66	p = .10
Sensation seeking	−0.01	0.01	−0.07	−2.67	p = .01
Positive expectancies	−0.14	0.04	−0.09	−3.38	p < .01
Gender (female)	0.38	0.07	0.12	5.32	p < .01
Country (Italy/Portugal)	0.44	0.07	0.14	6.15	p < .01
Educational strategies
F(7,1902) = 28.45, p < .01
Adjusted R^2 = .09
Sensation seeking	0.01	0.01	0.02	0.77	p = .44
Positive expectancies	−0.09	0.04	−0.06	−2.30	p = .02
DRSE	0.13	0.03	0.10	3.96	p < .01
AUDIT	−0.04	0.01	−0.14	−4.97	p < .01
Gender (female)	0.38	0.07	0.12	5.43	p < .01
Age	0.09	0.02	0.13	5.89	p < .01
Country (not Denmark)	0.66	0.09	0.17	7.42	p < .01
Banning sponsorship
F(5,1904) = 9.56 p < .01
Adjusted R^2 = .02
Sensation seeking	−0.01	0.01	−0.01	−0.46	p = .65
Positive expectancies	−0.07	0.06	−0.03	1.18	p = .24
AUDIT	−0.03	0.01	−0.07	−2.59	p = .01
Gender (female)	0.39	0.10	0.09	3.78	p < .01
Country (England/Germany)	0.50	0.12	0.10	4.22	p < .01

DRSE: Drink refusal self-efficacy; AUDIT: Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test.