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Objective: Little work has evaluated the relationship between injunctive norms and marijuana use. This study sought to establish whether misperceptions exist between perceived injunctive norms of typical college students and the actual approval level of the students. We also examined respondents' perceptions of which groups (typical student, close friends, and parents) were the most and least approving of marijuana. These variables were then applied to an explanatory model to assess their relationships with marijuana use. Method: Participants were 3,753 students (61% female) randomly recruited from two West Coast campuses. Participants were asked about their own marijuana use and their own approval toward marijuana. Injunctive norms were assessed by asking respondents about their perceptions of how much other refer ence groups approved of marijuana. Results: Students overestimated the extent to which the typical student approves of marijuana use. A path model showed that perceived approval of both close friends and parents predicted actual/self-approval, which in turn was most predictive of personal marijuana use. Perceptions of typical-student and close friends' approval also directly predicted one's own use, whereas the path from parental approval to marijuana use was fully mediated by one's own approval. Conclusions: Findings suggest that perceived injunctive norms may function differently with respect to marijuana use than they do with respect to alcohol use and raise questions about how to incorporate social-normative information into marijuana interventions. (J Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 71, 904-908, 2010), APPROXIMATELY 46% OF COLLEGE STUDENTS report having tried marijuana, 30% report use in the past year, and 16% report past-30-day use (Gledhill-Hoyt et al., 2000; Johnston et al., 2007). Problematic [...]

Objective: Retrospective summary, followback (retrospective diaries), and prospective daily diary measures of alcohol use among college students were compared across 29 days. Method: Participants were college students (n = 176; 60.2% female). Similarities in the three web-based reporting methods and both between-persons (i.e., gender, past drinking behavior, fraternity/sorority affiliation, average drinking behavior during the study period) and within-person (i.e., daily number of drinks, weekend days, Halloween, and week of study) predictors of concordance between reports of followback and prospective diaries were analyzed. Results: On prospective diaries, students reported a greater number of maximum drinks (compared with followback only) and a greater number of heavy drinking days in the past 2 weeks (compared with both followback and retrospective summary measures). In followback compared with prospective diaries, students tended to provide inflated accounts of their drinking behavior when reporting about occasions with greater typical drinking (i.e., weekends, Halloween) and deflated accounts of their drinking on their own heavier drinking days, especially if they were affiliated with a fraternity/sorority. Women and students who drank more on average across study days tended to provide deflated estimates of their day-to-day drinking in followback compared with prospective diary. Conclusions: Understanding the concordance and discordance in self-reported alcohol use is an important area for continued research efforts. (J Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 71, 554-561, 2010), SELF-REPORTED ALCOHOL USE is the most common form of assessment of drinking behavior. Still, there is a need to better understand the processes involved when respondents report on their alcohol [...]

Objective: Motivational interviewing (MI) therapies are effective in reducing high-risk drinking in college populations. Although research supports efficacy of MI prevention strategies in reducing alcohol use, there are little data examining readiness to change (RTC), the underlying theoretical model of MI interventions. The purpose of the present study was to explore RTC variability and drinking behavior and whether MI increases RTC in an intervention group compared with controls. Method: Two-hundred eighty-five first-year female college students participated in the study. Present analyses focused on those students who consumed alcohol in the month before the study (n = 182). RTC was measured using the Readiness to Change Ruler. Results: Analyses were conducted using hierarchical linear modeling. There was significant variability in RTC: 71.86% of variance in RTC was between person differences, and 28.14% was within-person differences. Higher RTC was associated with lower intentions to drink and future drinking behavior. However, in weeks in which students drank more, they experienced a decrease in RTC. Based on the significant cross-level interaction, the intervention group had significantly higher RTC than controls. Conclusions: These results provided partial support for our hypotheses. The overall theoretical construct of RTC varies both across and within individuals. These results also offer support for the utility of Ml-based prevention strategies in increasing RTC within individuals. However, we did not consistently find that these changes related to drinking changes. Findings provide support for both the construct of RTC and utility of MI interventions in changing these beliefs in female college students., COLLEGE STUDENTS CONSUME MORE ALCOHOL when compared with nonstudent peers (Lanza and Collins, 2006; Schulenberg and Maggs, 2002). However, there appear to be significant differences across college students in their [...]

Objective: Research has found perceived descriptive norms to be one of the strongest predictors of college student drinking, and several intervention approaches have incorporated normative feedback to correct misperceptions of peer drinking behavior. Little research has focused on the role of the reference group in normative perceptions. The current study sought to examine whether normative perceptions vary based on specificity of the reference group and whether perceived norms for more specific reference-group norms are related to individual drinking behavior. Method: Participants were first-year undergraduates (n = 1,276, 58% female) randomly selected from a university list of incoming students. Participants reported personal drinking behavior and perceived descriptive norms for eight reference groups, including typical student; same gender, ethnicity, or residence; and combinations of those reference groups (e.g., same gender and residence). Results; Findings indicated that participants distinguished among different reference groups in estimating descriptive drinking norms. Moreover, results indicated misperceptions in drinking norms were evident at all levels of specificity of the reference group. Additionally, findings showed perceived norms for more specific groups were uniquely related to participants' own drinking. Conclusions: These results suggest that providing normative feedback targeting at least one level of specificity to the participant (i.e., beyond what the 'typical' student does) may be an important tool in normative feedback interventions., CONSIDERABLE RESEARCH HAS EVALUATED factors influencing excessive drinking among college students. Perceived descriptive norms (perceived behavior of others) regarding peer drinking are among the strongest influences on students' personal drinking [...]

Objective: Relatively little research has evaluated motives for using marijuana based on users' self-reported reasons. This article details the construction and psychometric validation of a new marijuana motives questionnaire. Method: Participants included 346 marijuana-using college students who completed online assessments regarding their motives for, frequency of, and problems associated with their marijuana use. Results: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis supported a 12-factor scale, including the following: (1) Enjoyment, (2) Conformity, (3) Coping, (4) Experimentation, (5) Boredom, (6)Alcohol, (7) Celebration, (8)Altered Perception, (9) Social Anxiety, (10) Relative Low Risk, (11) Sleep/Rest, and (12) Availability. Regression results indicated enjoyment, boredom, altered perception, relative low-risk, and sleep/rest were each uniquely associated with greater frequency of use. Experimentation and availability motives were associated with less use. After accounting for use, coping and sleep/rest were associated with significantly more consequences whereas enjoyment was associated with fewer consequences. Additional results comparing the scale to an existing marijuana motives measure indicated comparatively good convergent validity. Conclusions: Emerging adult college students may have several different reasons for using marijuana, which are uniquely related to use and negative consequences. Results are considered in terms of their implications for brief interventions., ADOLESCENCE AND EMERGING ADULTHOOD are crucial periods for the initiation of risky health-related behaviors (Arnett, 2000), and theoretical models on the determinants of alcohol use (e.g., Cooper, 1994; Cox and [...]

Objective: Although studies have consistently indicated that among college students alcohol use and the likelihood of experiencing alcohol-related problems are related, it is possible that additional factors strengthen the magnitude of this relationship. The purpose of the present study was to assess the moderating effect of two such factors: negative affect and coping drinking motives. Method: Data were collected on 316 college students at a midsized, public university in the upper Midwest who reported using alcohol. Results: Findings indicated that both negative affect and coping drinking motives moderated the alcohol use alcohol problems relationship. The three-way interaction indicated that the strongest relationship between alcohol use and alcohol-related problems existed for individuals high in both negative affect and coping drinking motives. Conclusions: This study suggests that college students high in negative affect and coping drinking motives are particularly at risk for experiencing problems as a result of their alcohol use, indicating that clinicians should consider screening for these factors when conducting alcohol-related prevention and intervention efforts., HEAVY DRINKING AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS is a personal and public health risk. Results from national epidemiological studies indicated that approximately 40%-45% of students engaged in 'heavy episodic' drinking (four or [...]

Objective: Social norms are a key determinant of young adult drinking, yet little research has evaluated potential interactive effects among different types of norms. The present research was designed to evaluate perceptions of friends' approval of drinking (i.e., injunctive norms) as a moderator of the relationship between perceived prevalence of friends' drinking (i.e., descriptive norms) and personal alcohol consumption. We also evaluated whether social drinking motives further influence this relationship. Method: Participants included 1,400 first-year college students (61% women) who completed Web-based assessments of descriptive and injunctive norms, personal drinking, and social drinking motives. Results: Results revealed that both descriptive and injunctive norms regarding close friends were uniquely and positively associated with drinking behavior. The relationship between perceived descriptive norms and personal alcohol consumption was stronger among those who also perceived their friends as being more approving of drinking but only among students who reported stronger social motives for drinking. Conclusions: Descriptive and injunctive norms are distinct constructs and are not interchangeable, having both unique and interactive effects, and vary as a function of social motives. Results are considered in terms of their implications for brief interventions., SOCIAL NORMS ARE AMONG THE STRONGEST predictors of college student drinking (Borsari and Carey, 2001; Perkins, 2002) and figure prominently in several influential theories of behavior (e.g., Theory of Reasoned [...]

Objective: Heavy college-student alcohol use and its resulting negative consequences represent a public-health problem on American college campuses. The Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI) is a commonly used measure of alcohol problems among college students, but the psychometric properties of this measure never have been comprehensively assessed with the college-student population. The purpose of this research was to conduct reliability and validity analyses, particularly exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, on a dichotomously scored version of the measure. Method: Data were collected on 4,686 undergraduate students at a large, public university in the Northwest region of the United States and 438 students at a large, public university in the Northeast. Results: Exploratory factor analysis suggested that a three-factor model provided the best fit to the data. This finding was replicated via confirmatory factor analyses in two separate samples. The three factors were labeled Abuse/Dependence Symptoms, Personal Consequences, and Social Consequences. Each individual factor demonstrated adequate internal consistency and convergent validity. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that a dichotomously scored RAPI consists of three subfactors that are reliable and valid in identifying alcohol-related problems among college students., EXCESSIVE ALCOHOL USE among college students represents an important public health problem. Results from national epidemiologic studies suggest that approximately 40%-45% of students engaged in heavy episodic drinking in the [...]

Objective: Studies indicate greater sexual risk-taking behaviors and alcohol use in student-athletes compared with nonathletes, particularly in college samples. Although research has documented an association between drinking and risky sex, studies have not examined the role of sex motives in predicting risky sex in athletes. The purpose of the current study was to extend previous research on athletes' risk-taking behaviors by examining incoming college student-athletes and nonathletes' alcohol consumption, risky sexual behavior, and sex motives. Method: Participants included 2,123 (58.9% female) incoming college students attending a northwest university, 221 of whom reported intercollegiate athletic participation during their upcoming year. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine associations between sex motives and risky sexual behaviors using a cross-sectional design. Results: Results indicated greater weekly alcohol consumption, frequency of drinking before or during sex, and number of sexual partners in athletes compared with nonathletes. Athletes also reported greater levels of enhancement motives for sex and lower levels of intimacy motives than nonathletes, although no differences were found for coping motives. Significant interactions indicated that, for athletes, greater levels of enhancement sex motives predicted a greater number of sexual partners and more frequent drinking before or during sex, and greater levels of intimacy motives predicted less frequent drinking before or during sex. Conclusions: Student-athletes are at risk for problematic outcomes associated with risky sex, including drinking before or during sex and having sex with multiple partners. Prevention efforts targeted at incoming college student-athletes should consider the role of sex motives., ADOLESCENCE AND EMERGING ADULTHOOD are crucial developmental periods characterized by self-exploration and experimentation in multiple, health-related domains (e.g., alcohol use, sexual behavior), often accompanied by subsequent increases in risk-taking behaviors [...]

Objective: This research was designed to evaluate the relative contribution of social norms, demographics, drinking motives, and alcohol expectancies in predicting alcohol consumption and related problems among heavy-drinking college students. Method: Participants included 818 (57.6% women) first-year undergraduates who reported at least one heavy-drinking episode in the previous month. In addition to providing demographic information (gender and fraternity/sorority membership) participants completed Web-based assessments of social norms (perceived descriptive norms regarding typical student drinking, injunctive norms regarding friends' and parents' approval), motives (social, enhancement, coping, and conformity), and expectancies and evaluations of positive and negative alcohol effects. Results: Regression results indicated that descriptive and injunctive norms were among the best predictors of college student drinking. With respect to alcohol problems, results indicated that coping motives accounted for the largest proportion of unique variance. Finally, results revealed that alcohol consumption mediated the relationships between predictors and problems for social norms, whereas coping motives, negative expectancies, and evaluation of negative effects were directly associated with alcohol problems despite having relatively weak or null unique associations with consumption. Conclusions: The results of this study substantiate social norms as being among the best predictors of alcohol consumption in this population and suggest that drinking to cope is a better predictor of problems. The findings are discussed in terms of practical prevention and treatment implications. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs 68: 556-565, 2007), HEAVY ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION is both a prevalent and a problematic behavior among college students. Approximately 40%-45% of students nationwide report engaging in heavy episodic drinking (e.g., O'Malley and Johnston, 2002; [...]

Objective: Previous research has consistently demonstrated that religiosity and personal importance of religion are associated with lower levels of alcohol use among both adolescents and college students. Although a number of different mechanisms have been proposed to account for this, few studies have empirically examined potential mediators of this relationship. Given the extensive literature on the impact of social norms on the drinking behavior of college students, the present study evaluates the role of perceived drinking norms as a mediator of the relationship between the importance of religion and alcohol use. Specifically, we examined both personal attitudes and perceived injunctive norms with regard to reference groups that vary in their proximity to students (i.e., close friends and typical college students). Method: Participants were 1,400 undergraduate students (60.6% women) who were assessed using self-report measures of alcohol consumption, importance of religion, attitudes, and perceived norms. Results: Results indicated that, consistent with the hypotheses, personal attitudes were the strongest mediator of the relationship between importance of religion and alcohol use, followed by the approval of close friends, and, to a lesser extent, the approval of typical college students. Conclusions: These findings suggest that importance of religion may have an indirect effect on alcohol use via personal attitudes and the perceived approval or disapproval of important others, and this relationship varies as a function of reference group. Implications for interventions that incorporate information on social norms are discussed., EXCESSIVE ALCOHOL USE AMONG college students continues to be a substantial problem and is associated with a variety of negative consequences, including injuries, sexual assaults, unplanned and unprotected sex, property [...]

Objective: There is considerable variability in how young adults (YAs) perceive drinking-related consequences, and some researcher-identified "negative" consequences are viewed by YAs as neutral or even somewhat positive. Little is known about individual difference factors that may influence subjective evaluations of alcohol consequences., Method: We tested whether endorsement and subjective evaluation ('extremely negative' to 'extremely positive') of 24 alcohol-related "negative" consequences differed by age (18-20, 21-27), past 3-month drinking frequency (3x/month or less, weekly or more), and current undergraduate status (4-year undergraduate, non-student). YAs were recruited for a longitudinal ecological momentary assessment study on cognitions and alcohol use. Participants in the analytic sample (N=640; 48.1% White non-Hispanic/Latinx, 50.0% female, mean age=22.2 years, SD=2.3) reported past 3-month drinking. Past 3-month drinking frequency, negative consequences (total and item-level), and subjective evaluations of consequences were assessed cross-sectionally., Results: Compared to YAs 18-20, YAs 21+ experienced fewer total consequences, were significantly less likely to endorse experiencing physical/behavioral consequences, and rated these consequences more negatively if they were endorsed. YAs who drank weekly or more reported experiencing more consequences and were significantly more likely to experience all 24 consequences in comparison to YAs who drank 3x/month or less. Subjective evaluation ratings did not significantly differ by drinking frequency. There were few differences between 4-year undergraduate and non-undergraduates; non-undergraduates rated several health/responsibility-related consequences more negatively., Conclusions: Findings highlight the importance of identifying individual difference factors that contribute to subjective evaluation ratings, and may be useful for tailoring brief, personalized alcohol interventions for YAs.

Objective: There has been concern regarding increased substance use during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among young adults, but much of this concern stemmed from cross-sectional or short-term data collected early in the pandemic. This study followed a young adult community cohort throughout the first 1.5 years of the pandemic to examine longer-term trends/trajectories in alcohol and cannabis use behaviors., Method: Beginning before the COVID-19 pandemic (January 2020), 656 young adults completed up to eight surveys on substance use and other behaviors, which extended through August 2021. Multilevel spline growth models estimated changes in alcohol/cannabis use in three segments: (a) from pre-pandemic to April 2020, (b) from April 2020 to September/October 2020, and (c) from September/October 2020 to July/August 2021. Abstainers were removed from the analyses, yielding subsamples for alcohol models ( n = 545; M age = 25.6 years; 59.8% female) and cannabis models ( n = 303; M age = 25.6; 61.4% female)., Results: Drinking frequency initially increased (3% per month), decreased in the second segment (4% per month), and plateaued in the final segment. Drinking quantity significantly decreased in all three segments: 4% per month in segment one, 3% per month in segment two, and 1% per month in the final segment. Cannabis frequency and quantity showed no significant changes across the first two segments, then significantly decreased in the final segment (3% and 6% per month, respectively). The significant changes for cannabis frequency/quantity were moderated by age, such that older participants had steeper decreases in the final segment., Conclusions: Findings highlight that young adult alcohol and cannabis use generally declined across the first 1.5 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, contrary to widespread concerns., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Objective: Simultaneous alcohol and marijuana (SAM) use is reported to be associated with heavier alcohol and marijuana use and more negative consequences, but less is known about the social, physical, and temporal contexts of SAM use., Method: Young adults ( N = 326, 51.2% male, 49.1% White non-Hispanic) who reported past-month SAM use completed up to 14 daily surveys across five bursts that assessed SAM use and negative consequences and social, physical, and temporal contexts. We used multilevel models to examine SAM use contexts' associations with alcohol/marijuana quantity and consequences., Results: The social context of alone only (vs. with others only) was associated with consuming fewer drinks. Physical contexts that included using both at home and outside the home (vs. only at home) were associated with greater alcohol and marijuana quantity and negative consequences (but not after controlling for alcohol quantity); use outside the home only (vs. only at home) was associated with more alcohol use, more alcohol consequences (but not after controlling for alcohol quantity), and fewer marijuana consequences (even after controlling for marijuana quantity). The temporal context of first engaging in SAM use before 6 P.M. (vs. after 9 P.M.) was associated with greater alcohol and marijuana quantity and more marijuana consequences (but not after controlling for number of hours high), and first engaging in SAM use between 6 and 9 P.M. was associated with more hours high., Conclusions: SAM use contexts such as using with others, using outside the home, and using earlier in the evening are typically associated with greater alcohol/marijuana quantity and consequences.

Objective: Prior research has shown that normative perceptions of others' drinking behavior strongly relates to one's own drinking behavior. Most research examining the perceived drinking of others has generally focused on specificity of the normative referent (i.e., gender, ethnicity). The present study expands the research literature on social norms by examining normative perceptions by various drinking contexts. Specifically, this research aimed to determine if college students overestimate peer drinking by several drinking contexts (i.e., bar, fraternity/sorority party, non-fraternity/sorority party, sporting event) and to examine whether normative perceptions for drinking by contexts relate to one's own drinking behavior specific to these contexts., Method: Students (N = 1,468; 56.4% female) participated in a web-based survey by completing measures assessing drinking behavior and perceived descriptive drinking norms for various contexts., Results: Findings demonstrated that students consistently overestimated the drinking behavior for the typical same-sex student in various drinking contexts, with the most prominent being fraternity/sorority parties. In addition, results indicated that same-sex normative perceptions for drinking by contexts were associated with personal drinking behavior within these contexts., Conclusions: Results stress the importance of specificity of social norms beyond those related to the normative referent. Clinical implications are discussed in terms of preventions and intervention efforts as well as risks associated with drinking in a novel context.