Let's get this party started: The effects of descriptive and injunctive norms on preparty behavior in college students

摘要

Participants (N = 202) were students at a college in the northeastern United States who participated in the 2010 Core Alcohol and Drug survey. Data were collected on prepartying behavior, preparty social norms, and individual-difference variables. Using multivariate logistic and least-squares regression, it was found that descriptive social norms were associated with prepartying in women and injunctive social norms were associated with prepartying in men. Prepartying also was found to be negatively related to underage status and GPA in women and positively related to Greek membership and athlete status in men. Implications for social-norms interventions and suggestions for future social-norms research are discussed.