College Students’ Perceptions of Peer Alcohol Use: A Social Network Analytic Approach

Abstract

Background: Traditional measures attempting to capture students’ perceptions of peer drinking fail to capture the unique social influence of their most proximal peers. Purpose: This study presents egocentric social network data assessing the relationship between students’ personal drinking behaviors and those of their closest social ties. Methods: 697 college students participated in the study by reporting on demographic information, alcohol use (AUDIT scores), and egocentric networks. Hierarchical linear regression assessed whether egocentric network variables uniquely predicted personal alcohol use, controlling for age, gender, race/ethnicity, and Greek-life affiliation. Results: Students with higher AUDIT scores were more likely to nominate persons close to them that engaged in more frequent, higher quantity drinking, and were also likely to mirror drinking behaviors to that of their close ties. Conclusion: Future studies should utilize SNA to capture the nuance associated with individuals’ perceptions of close others’ alcohol use and their own drinking behaviors. Interventions aimed at reducing collegiate drinking should consider the interpersonal nature of drinking behaviors among college student networks.

Keywords:

• Alcohol
• drinking
• college students
• social networks
• network analysis

Declaration of interests

Role of funding sources

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Conflict of interests

The authors have no competing interests or conflicts to declare.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [AMR], upon reasonable request.