WINNER, 1983 NCSA UNDERGRADUATE PAPER COMPETITION: The Normative Structures of College Students and Patterns of Drinking Behavior

This study reexamined the relationship between normative structures of college students and patterns of drinking behavior. Results from a survey of 548 students at five colleges in northwestern Pennsylvania indicated that those students who had nonscriptive normative structures were more likely to misuse alcohol, those with prescriptive normative structures were more likely to drink and have no alcohol-related behavior problems, and those with proscriptive normative structures were more likely to drink a little or to be abstainers. This study also assessed the patterns of drinking behavior of college students. Results indicated that 15.9 percent of the students surveyed misuse alcohol. The importance and implications of the findings are discussed.