Citation

Aldridge-Gerry A, Cucciare MA, Ghaus S, Ketroser N. Addict. Behav. 2012; 37(7): 776-782.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 401 Quarry Road, Stanford, CA 94305-5718, United States.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.addbeh.2012.02.017

PMID

22424825

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The current cross sectional study sought to examine whether perceived social normative beliefs are associated with indicators of alcohol use in a sample of alcohol misusing veterans. METHOD: A sample of 107 U.S. Military Veterans presenting to primary care that screened positive for alcohol misuse on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption Items (AUDIT-C) was recruited. Assessment measures were used to examine social normative beliefs and alcohol-related concerns as they relate to indicators of alcohol use at baseline. RESULTS: Our findings indicate mixed support for our two hypotheses in that perceived descriptive norms were associated with alcohol use indicators in the predicted direction; however, this was not the case for alcohol-related concerns. For perceived norms, we found that higher quantity beliefs were significantly related to greater alcohol consumption on a drinking day (p<.01), increased likelihood of dependence (p<.01), and frequency beliefs were significantly related to total number of drinking days (p<.01). Findings for alcohol-related concerns emerged contrary to our hypothesis, with results depicting increased alcohol-related concerns associated with higher alcohol consumption across indicators of use (ps<.01). SUMMARY: Findings of the current study suggest that social normative beliefs, specifically misperceptions about descriptive norms, are significantly associated with alcohol consumption in a sample of alcohol misusing veterans presenting to primary care.

Language: en