Conformity to Perceived Drinking Norms within College Club Sport Teams
Open Access
- Author:
- Graupensperger, Scott A
- Graduate Program:
- Kinesiology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- December 05, 2019
- Committee Members:
- M. Blair Evans, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
M. Blair Evans, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Danielle Symons Downs, Committee Member
Robert J Turrisi, Outside Member
Damon Jones, Outside Member
Nancy Williams, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- Alcohol
Peer Influence
Athletes
Social Network Analysis
Group Dynamics - Abstract:
- Alcohol use among college students is a considerable public health concern and there is evidence that sport-playing students are at heightened risk. Emerging adults are highly susceptible to peer influences, and they often model their drinking behaviors based on what they believe to be the attitudes and behaviors of their peers. These normative influences are thought to be particularly strong within small proximal groups, such as student sport clubs. It is nevertheless unclear how perceived norms within these groups relate to students’ alcohol use behavior over time, and why some students adhere to perceived group drinking norms more (or less) than others. This dissertation comprises two standalone papers that address these knowledge gaps. To accomplish the goals of this research, data were collected at three timepoints across the school year from 1,054 students who were nested in 35 intact collegiate club sport teams. In Paper One, I examined prospective associations between perceived descriptive and injunctive group drinking norms and students’ own alcohol use frequency. Results from random-intercept cross-lagged panel modeling indicated that descriptive and injunctive group drinking norms were both positively related to students’ alcohol use frequency at the between-person level. Models also differed regarding whether descriptive or injunctive norms were included. For descriptive norms, results revealed a strong contemporaneous association with alcohol use frequency within each time point, but no prospective associations. Models including perceptions of injunctive drinking norms demonstrated similar contemporaneous associations with alcohol use frequency, but also identified significant prospective associations signifying conformity processes (i.e., injunctive norms predicted alcohol use). Paper Two was designed to test the extent that aspects of the group environment moderated associations between perceived descriptive/injunctive group drinking norms and students’ alcohol use behavior. I specifically explored moderators of adherence to perceived team drinking norms. Employing a longitudinal three-level modeling approach (responses nested in people, who were nested in groups), several significant interactions identified moderating effects at within- and between-person levels. Students who identified more strongly with their team also more readily adhered to perceived drinking norms. Norm adherence was also greater at timepoints when students identified more strongly, relative to aggregated person-mean levels. Another key finding was that students with lower social standing within respective groups (i.e., lower indegree centrality, captured via social network analysis) adhered to perceived injunctive drinking norms to a greater extent. Cross-level interactions revealed that belonging to a more tightknit group (i.e., network with high density) amplified the extent that students adhered to perceived descriptive drinking norms. Paper Two findings also revealed that norms were forged over time, whereby teammates approached consensus on the groups’ descriptive and injunctive drinking norms, along with alcohol use behaviors. Taken together, results from these two dissertation studies advance our understanding of alcohol-related peer influences within student sport teams and identify underlying group processes that tend to render social influences more salient. Findings will inform the strategies that practitioners use to implement norms-based harm-reduction strategies, especially when tailoring normative messages so they can be implemented within proximal student groups.