TY - JOUR
T1 - Dynamic characteristics of groups and individuals that amplify adherence to perceived drinking norms in college club sport teams
T2 - A longitudinal multilevel investigation.
AU - Graupensperger, Scott
AU - Turrisi, Rob
AU - Jones, Damon
AU - Evans, M. Blair
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Psychological Association
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Social norms positively predict college students’ alcohol use, but it is critical to explore heterogeneity in these patterns to identify which students are most susceptible to normative influences. The current study explored the nature of drinking norms within college student peer sport clubs. We examined the association between self-reported alcohol use (i.e., number of drinks in a typical week) and perceived descriptive/injunctive norms as an indicator of norm adherence and then tested moderating effects of social constructs related to the group: Social identification with one’s team, along with social network-derived indices of indegree centrality and network density. We sampled members of 35 intact college club sport teams at 3 timepoints across the school year (N = 1,054; 61% female). Multilevel modeling was employed to estimate moderating effects at within-person, between-person, and between-groups levels. Initial analyses revealed that perceived group norms predicted self-reported alcohol use, and that teams approached consensus on the groups’ drinking norms over time. Several significant time-varying moderation patterns were uncovered. At timepoints when students identified more strongly with their team (relative to person-mean levels), they more readily adhered to perceived descriptive and injunctive team drinking norms. Students also adhered more closely to these perceived team drinking norms at timepoints when students were nominated as having relatively lower indegree centrality. Cross-level interactions revealed that neither network density nor team sex moderated these associations. Taken together, the current findings advance our understanding of group processes that may produce more salient social influences on students’ alcohol use behaviors within proximal peer groups.
AB - Social norms positively predict college students’ alcohol use, but it is critical to explore heterogeneity in these patterns to identify which students are most susceptible to normative influences. The current study explored the nature of drinking norms within college student peer sport clubs. We examined the association between self-reported alcohol use (i.e., number of drinks in a typical week) and perceived descriptive/injunctive norms as an indicator of norm adherence and then tested moderating effects of social constructs related to the group: Social identification with one’s team, along with social network-derived indices of indegree centrality and network density. We sampled members of 35 intact college club sport teams at 3 timepoints across the school year (N = 1,054; 61% female). Multilevel modeling was employed to estimate moderating effects at within-person, between-person, and between-groups levels. Initial analyses revealed that perceived group norms predicted self-reported alcohol use, and that teams approached consensus on the groups’ drinking norms over time. Several significant time-varying moderation patterns were uncovered. At timepoints when students identified more strongly with their team (relative to person-mean levels), they more readily adhered to perceived descriptive and injunctive team drinking norms. Students also adhered more closely to these perceived team drinking norms at timepoints when students were nominated as having relatively lower indegree centrality. Cross-level interactions revealed that neither network density nor team sex moderated these associations. Taken together, the current findings advance our understanding of group processes that may produce more salient social influences on students’ alcohol use behaviors within proximal peer groups.
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U2 - 10.1037/adb0000654
DO - 10.1037/adb0000654
M3 - Article
C2 - 32584052
AN - SCOPUS:85087213147
SN - 0893-164X
VL - 35
SP - 351
EP - 365
JO - Psychology of Addictive Behaviors
JF - Psychology of Addictive Behaviors
IS - 3
ER -