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Perceived norms and alcohol use within college student-athletes' friendship networks
Methods: In 2013, 2,625 college student-athletes participating in NCAA sports completed surveys for myPlaybook, an online drug prevention program. Using baseline data, we tested whether perceptions of friends’ drinking (descriptive norms) and perceptions of friends’ approval of drinking (injunctive norms) independently predicted student-athletes’ alcohol use.
Results: First, college student-athletes spent approximately 5 hours per week in-person and 2 hours per week online with each friend; they spent more time in-person (but less time online) with teammate and first-year friends. Second, the associations between college student-athletes’ perceived norms and alcohol use depended on the type of friend. Perceived descriptive norms from first-year friends (β=0.290) and injunctive norms from upperclassmen (β=0.212) on drinking significantly predicted alcohol use. Both descriptive (β=0.226) and injunctive (β=0.131) norms from teammates (β=0.175) and most influential friends (β=0.167) significantly predicted alcohol use, whereas only descriptive norms from non-team friends (β=0.176) and less influential friends (β=0.226) significantly predicted alcohol use.
Conclusions: Athletics departments’ alcohol policies and prevention programming for college student-athletes should address the potential influence of different types of friends on alcohol use.
Learning Areas:
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programsProgram planning
Learning Objectives:
Describe college student-athletes’ perceptions of alcohol use among their friendship networks.
Identify the characteristics of student-athletes’ perceived friendship context that are associated with drinking behaviors.
Keyword(s): Alcohol Use, College Students
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: During both graduate research methods courses and an independent research project, I conducted statistical analyses, including social network analysis, on the data for which this abstract is derived.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.