Attitudinal and normative variables as predictors of drinking behavior.

Abstract

The relationship between attitudes about alcohol use and self-reported drinking behavior was explored within the context of the behavioral prediction theory. According to the theory, behavior and behavioral intentions were a function of attitude toward the act, personal normative beliefs and social normative beliefs. Data were obtained from 3 groups: 99 men and 104 women (average age 41, average education 12.2 yr, 64% Protestant, 23% Roman Catholic, 1 Black) in a rural community of Pennsylvania [USA], 65 men and 45 women (average age 27, at least 16 yr of education, 19% Protestant, 64% Roman Catholic, 7% nonwhite) graduate students in social work, and 47 men (average age 32, average education 10.4 yr, 37% Protestant, 40% Roman Catholic, 40% Black) who were inmates of a long-term prison in the area and were members of Alcoholics Anonymous. Regression analyses indicated that attitudes about alcohol use were positively and relatively strongly related to self-reported drinking behavior. Personal normative beliefs also tended to be useful predictors of drinking behavior, but social normative expectations, such as expectations of friends and family, contributed little to the regression analyses. Sex and type of group attenuated the relationships found for attitude toward the act and personal normative belief, particularly in the student sample. Although there were no sex differences in terms of drinking behavior in the student sample, as there were in the community sample, there were sex differences in terms of the variables related to drinking, as personal normative belief carried the most weight for the men while attitude toward the act carried the most for the women.