Alcohol Abuse by University Students and Its Relationship to Sociomoral Reasoning

The domain approach to sociomoral reasoning is concerned with how individuals view decisions about the use of alcohol. This investigation examined the relationship between episodes of binge drinking by undergraduates (N=592) and the extent to which students saw decisions about alcohol-use as involving five domains of sociomoral reasoning: personal choice, morality, social convention, prudentialty acceptable, and prudentialty unacceptable concerns. Overall, the results showed that the undergraduates who abused alcohol the most used their thinking skills in an immature manner which emphasized personal choice and the lack of rules against drinking and denied possible personal and interpersonal harm from alcohol-use and abuse. Implications of these findings for college alcohol education programs are discussed regarding the importance of taking into account the values that students possess with regard to the decisions they make about alcohol-use.