The Role of Parents, Peers, and Autonomy in Alcohol Use during the First Year of College

Drinking among college students is a serious problem that can have severe consequences, and research on the factors which influence student drinking are prevalent in the literature. Two such factors, parental knowledge and close friend/peer norms about alcohol use, were examined in the current study. It was hypothesized that drinking behavior among college students would be influenced by parental knowledge, close friend alcohol use, and peer norms about alcohol use. In addition, parental and peer influences on alcohol use among college students were expected to differ depending on the levels of autonomy the students possessed. Data were collected from freshmen college students at the University of Pittsburgh during the Fall semester of 2009. Results showed that higher levels of parental knowledge were significantly related to lower levels of alcohol use, and higher levels of both close friend alcohol use and peer norms were associated with higher levels of alcohol use. The moderating effect of autonomy was found for peer norms about alcohol use, but not for parental knowledge or friend alcohol use. The pattern of the results was, however, not in the hypothesized direction, with a stronger association between peer norms and alcohol use among those with higher autonomy than those with lower autonomy. Potential explanations for the findings, along with the limitations of the current study and the future directions, are discussed