Social Cognitive Processes Associated with Underage Drinking and Alcohol-related Harm

229 Pages·2014·2.24 MB·English

by  Miss Catherine Quinn

Social Cognitive Processes Associated with Underage
Drinking and Alcohol-related Harm

Catherine Quinn
Bachelor of Arts (Psychology - Hons)
Psychology Department
Faculty of Human Sciences
Macquarie University

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy / Master of
Clinical Psychology
June 2014

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Table of Contents

Summary ......................................................................................................................... vii
Certification by Candidate............................................................................................... ix
Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... x

Chapter 1. General Introduction ................................................................................. 1
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 3
Background Overview of Underage Drinking ................................................................ 5
Underage Drinking laws ........................................................................................ 5
Developmental Course of Underage Drinking ...................................................... 5
Underage Drinking ...................................................................................... 6
Heavy episodic drinking ............................................................................... 7
Alcohol-related harm ................................................................................... 8
Gender Differences in Underage Drinking ............................................................ 8
Cross-country Differences in Underage Drinking ................................................. 9
Social Setting .......................................................................................................... 10
Factors Relating to Underage Drinking ................................................................ 10
Sociostructural influence .............................................................................. 11
Social influence ............................................................................................ 12
Personal factors ........................................................................................... 13
Summary of Underage Drinking Overview ............................................................ 15
Theoretical Perspectives on Underage Drinking ............................................................. 16
Cognitive-Affective Theories .................................................................................. 17
Theory of reasoned action ............................................................................ 17
Theory of planned behaviour ....................................................................... 18
Social Norms Theory .............................................................................................. 19
Theory of Problem Behaviour ................................................................................ 21
Social Cognitive Theory ......................................................................................... 22
Social Sanctions ........................................................................................... 24
Self-sanctions ............................................................................................... 25
Moral Disengagement .................................................................................. 27
Present Research ............................................................................................................. 29

Chapter 2. The Role of Moral Disengagement in Underage Drinking and
Alcohol-related Harm ................................................................................................... 33
Abstract ........................................................................................................................... 34
The Role of Moral Disengagement in Underage Drinking and Alcohol-related Harm .. 35
Method ............................................................................................................................ 40
Participants ............................................................................................................ 40
Measures ................................................................................................................ 40
Underage drinking disengagement .............................................................. 40
General moral disengagement ..................................................................... 41
Lifetime Drinking ......................................................................................... 41
Alcohol-related harm ................................................................................... 41
Alcohol personal standards .......................................................................... 42
Alcohol guilt ................................................................................................. 42
Missing Data .......................................................................................................... 42
Procedure ............................................................................................................... 42
Results ............................................................................................................................. 43
Statistical Analysis ................................................................................................. 43
Underage Drinking ................................................................................................ 43
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Structure of the UDDS ........................................................................................... 45
Exploratory factor analysis (Sample 1) ....................................................... 45
Confirmatory factor analysis (Sample 2) ..................................................... 45
UDDS ..................................................................................................................... 45
Moderated Mediation ............................................................................................. 47
Simple Mediation .......................................................................................... 47
Moderation ................................................................................................... 50
Moderated mediation analysis ..................................................................... 51
Discussion ....................................................................................................................... 53

Chapter 3. Adolescents’ Anticipated Social Outcomes from Mothers, Fathers,
and Peers for Drinking Alcohol and Being Drunk ..................................................... 59
Abstract ........................................................................................................................... 60
Adolescents’ Anticipated Social Outcomes from Mothers, Fathers, and Peers for
Drinking Alcohol and Being Drunk ................................................................................ 61
Method ............................................................................................................................ 65
Participants ............................................................................................................ 65
Measures ................................................................................................................ 66
Lifetime Drinking ......................................................................................... 66
Alcohol-related harm ................................................................................... 66
Anticipated social outcomes for drinking alcohol ........................................ 66
Anticipated social outcomes for being drunk ............................................... 67
Missing Data .......................................................................................................... 69
Procedure ............................................................................................................... 69
Results ............................................................................................................................. 69
Underage Drinking ................................................................................................ 69
Statistical Analysis ................................................................................................. 70
Structure of the Drink and Drunk ASO Scales ....................................................... 70
Drink ASO Scale ........................................................................................... 71
Drunk ASO Scale .......................................................................................... 72
Social Figure Effects by Grade and Gender .......................................................... 74
Drink ASO..................................................................................................... 75
Drunk ASO.................................................................................................... 77
Correlations ........................................................................................................... 79
Engagement in Underage Drinking and Anticipated Social Outcomes ................. 79
Alcohol-related Harm and Anticipated Social Outcomes ...................................... 80
Discussion ....................................................................................................................... 81

Chapter 4. The Influence of Underage Drinking Disengagement and Anticipated
Social Outcomes for Being Drunk on Adolescents’ Alcohol Use and Experience
of Alcohol-related Harm ............................................................................................... 87
Abstract ........................................................................................................................... 88
The Influence of Underage Drinking Disengagement and Anticipated Social
Outcomes for Being Drunk on Adolescents’ Alcohol Use and Experience of Alcohol-
related Harm .................................................................................................................... 89
Method ............................................................................................................................ 95
Participants and Sampling ..................................................................................... 95
Attrition .................................................................................................................. 95
Measures ................................................................................................................ 96
Alcohol Use .................................................................................................. 96
Alcohol-related harm ................................................................................... 96
Underage drinking disengagement .............................................................. 97
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Anticipated social outcomes for being drunk ............................................... 97
Missing Data .......................................................................................................... 97
Procedure ............................................................................................................... 98
Results ............................................................................................................................. 98
Statistical Analysis ................................................................................................. 98
Unconditional Growth Model ................................................................................ 101
Alcohol use ................................................................................................... 101
Alcohol-related harm ................................................................................... 102
Conditional Growth Model .................................................................................... 102
Alcohol use ................................................................................................... 102
Alcohol-related harm ................................................................................... 104
Discussion ....................................................................................................................... 106

Chapter 5. General Discussion ..................................................................................... 111
Introduction to General Discussion ................................................................................. 112
Overview of Findings ...................................................................................................... 112
Theoretical Implications .................................................................................................. 115
Implications for Intervention ........................................................................................... 117
Strengths of the Present Research ................................................................................... 120
Limitations of the Present Research ................................................................................ 121
Future Directions ............................................................................................................. 122
Summary and Conclusions .............................................................................................. 124

References ...................................................................................................................... 127

Appendix A. Items for Measures Presented in Chapters 2-4 .................................... 175

Appendix B. Means and Standard Errors for Chapters 2-4 ..................................... 195

Appendix C. Factors Analyses of Measures Presented in Chapters 2-4 .................. 201

Appendix D. Final Ethics Approval Letters for Chapters 2-4 .................................. 208
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List of Tables
Chapter 2.
Table 1. Factor loadings for the UDDS ............................................................................ 44
Table 2. Hierarchical regressions of the UDDS on underage drinking and alcohol-
related harm, controlling for general moral disengagement ............................................. 46
Table 3. Ordinary Least Squares and Logistic Regression Model Coefficients for
Mediation and Moderation Analyses ................................................................................ 48
Table 4. Conditional indirect effect of personal standards on underage drinking and
alcohol- related harm through guilt at levels of UDDS .................................................... 52

Chapter 3.
Table 1. Responses to six open-ended questions: “What would your mother/father/
friend think of you for drinking alcohol /being drunk?” .................................................. 68
Table 2. Summary of Intercorrelations, Means, and Standard Deviations for Analysed
Variables for the total sample (N = 646) and drinker sub-sample (n = 244) .................... 78
Table 3. Hierarchical Regressions Analyses for the Effects of Drink ASO on
Engagement in Underage Drinking and the Effects of Drunk ASO on Alcohol-related
Harm ................................................................................................................................. 80

Chapter 4.
Table 1. Means (Standard Deviations) for key variables within the study ....................... 99

Appendix B.
Table 1. Means and Standard Errors for all Variables by Grade and Gender for Chapter
2 (Sample 2) ...................................................................................................................... 196
Table 2. Means and Standard Errors for all Variables for the by Grade and Gender for
Total Sample (N = 646) for Chapter 3 .............................................................................. 197
Table 3. Means and Standard Errors for all Variables for the by Grade and Gender for
Drinker Sub-sample (N = 347) for Chapter 4 ................................................................... 198

Appendix C.
Table 1. Factor Structure for Items of the Alcohol-Harm Scale ....................................... 202
Table 2. Factor Structure for Items of the Moral Disengagement Scale .......................... 203
Table 3. Factor Structure for Items of the Alcohol Personal Standards Scale .................. 206
Table 4. Factor Structure for Items of the Alcohol Guilt Scale ........................................ 207
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List of Figures
Chapter 1.
Figure 1. Theory of reasoned action ............................................................................... 17

Chapter 2.
Figure 1. The conceptual moderated mediation model of personal standards to guilt to
underage drinking as moderated by UDDS .................................................................... 37
Figure 2. Path coefficients of simple mediational analysis on underage drinking (top:
N=636) and alcohol-related harm (bottom: n=384) ........................................................ 49
Figure 3. Moderation effect of personal standards (PS) on guilt by underage drinking
disengagement scale (UDDS) for both total sample (N=626) and drinker sub-sample
(n=384) ............................................................................................................................ 51

Chapter 3.
Figure 1. Confirmatory factor analysis for the Drink and the Drunk ASO Scales ......... 73
Figure 2. Mean Drink ASO score as a function of social figure and gender .................. 75
Figure 3. Mean Drink ASO score as a function of social figure and grade .................... 76
Figure 4. Mean Drunk ASO score as a function of social figure and grade ................... 77

Chapter 4.
Figure 1. The unconditional growth model for alcohol use / alcohol-related harm ....... 100
Figure 2. Conditional growth model for alcohol use, with time-varying covariates
underage drinking disengagement and anticipated social outcomes for being drunk ..... 103
Figure 3. Conditional growth model for alcohol-related harm, with time-varying
covariates underage drinking disengagement and anticipated social outcomes for
being drunk ...................................................................................................................... 105

Appendix A.
Figure 1. Standard Drinks guide ..................................................................................... 191
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