Alcohol consumption is not uncommon among college students. In fact, when adolescents go to college, they often engage in several risky activities for the first time. Using alcohol or drugs or engaging in risky sexual behaviors are patterns of exploration that are often viewed as “normal” developmental stages from adolescence to adulthood. But drinking patterns among some college students can become problematic. Interventions to reduce college drinking have targeted many factors associated to drinking, especially peer support. However, how peer support in social networks affects drinking behaviors is still unclear. In an effort to further elucidate this unique relationships, Jerry Cullum of the University of Connecticut recently led a study assessing how perceived social support (PSS) and acceptance of drinking norms affected the drinking patterns of 498 college students over a period of 30 days.
Cullum wanted to evaluate drinking over a long period of time to determine how PSS fluctuated. He found that the students who had low levels of PSS aligned their drinking behaviors with social norms, while those who felt they were very supported by their peers did not. In other words, the students who did not feel completely accepted by their peer network tended to drink more closely according to what they believed the peer norms to be. This finding could suggest that these students tried to gain acceptance from their peers by drinking according to their own perception of peer norms. However, those who felt accepted by peers did not pattern their drinking on the drinking behaviors of others.
These results are somewhat in contrast to what would be expected. It would be assumed that someone who does not belong to a social group would not endorse their norms. But according to these results, it is exactly feeling of not being accepted that motivates one to behave in ways that will gain them social acceptance. While those who feel socially accepted appear to be insulated from the pressure to adhere to peer norms. Cullum believes these findings underscore the importance of social integration and acceptance, not only for behaviors like drinking, but also for psychological well-being. He said, “It may reduce depressive symptoms and reactivity to stress and it helps to promote our well-being by fulfilling our basic needs to bond with others for peer influence.”
Cullum, Jerry, et al. (2013). Ignoring norms with a little help from my friends: Social support reduces normative influence on drinking behavior. Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology 32.1 (2013): 17-33. Print.
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