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. 2014 Aug;15(4):497-505.
doi: 10.1007/s11121-013-0391-9.

Longitudinal relationship between drinking with peers, descriptive norms, and adolescent alcohol use

Ashley Brooks-Russell  1 , Bruce Simons-Morton, Denise Haynie, Tilda Farhat, Jing Wang
Affiliations

Longitudinal relationship between drinking with peers, descriptive norms, and adolescent alcohol use

Ashley Brooks-Russell et al. Prev Sci. 2014 Aug.

Abstract

Descriptive norms are consistently found to predict adolescent alcohol use but less is known about the factors that predict descriptive norms. The objective of this study is to test if drinking with peers predicts later alcohol consumption and if this relationship is mediated by a change in the descriptive norms of peer alcohol use. Data are from a nationally representative cohort of high school students surveyed in the 10th and 11th grade (N = 2,162). Structural equation modeling was used to test a mediation model of the relationship between drinking with peers (T1) on later alcohol use (T2) and mediation of the relationship by descriptive norms (T2). Descriptive norms significantly mediated the relationship between drinking with peers and alcohol use for both males and females with a somewhat larger effect for males compared to females. These results support a continued focus on the development and evaluation of interventions to alter descriptive norms of alcohol use.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Measurement model of drinking with peers, descriptive norms, and alcohol use. MF male friend, FF female friend
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Alternative mediation model. “Path a” is the path from drinking with peers at T1 to descriptive norms at T2. ‘Path b’ is the path from descriptive norms at T1 to alcohol use at T2. The indirect effect is “path a” multiplied by “path b.” Adol adolescent
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Descriptive norms mediating the relationship between drinking with peers and alcohol use. Covariances among factors at the same time point are not pictured for model simplicity. M male, F female, MF male friend, FF female friend, *=p<0.05
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