Drug and Alcohol Dependence Volume 87, Issues 2-3 , 16 March 2007, Pages 281-287Alcohol expectancies, drinking refusal self-efficacy and drinking behaviour in Asian and Australian students
Claudia Lee Jardim a
aSchool of Psychology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Qld 4072, Australia
Received 8 February 2006; revised 21 August 2006; accepted 22 August 2006. Available online 20 September 2006.
Abstract
The effects of alcohol expectancies (AE) and drinking refusal self-efficacy (DRSE) in predicting alcohol consumption in Caucasians has been well studied. However, the role of AE and DRSE in Asian students is still not well understood.
This study reported on this using Caucasian (n = 98) and Asian (n = 92) student samples.
Participants completed the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) to measure their hazardous alcohol consumption, and the drinking expectancy profile (DEP) to assess their alcohol related expectancies and ability to resist drinking in certain situations.
Results showed that Caucasians reported significantly higher confidence, higher sexual interest, and higher tension reduction expectancies than Asians. Conversely, Asians significantly expected cognitive enhancement and negative consequences more than Caucasians. Relative to Caucasians, the Asian sample also reported that they would be more able to refuse alcohol when under social pressure.
Results from regression analyses showed that for the Caucasian sample, AE, DRSE and their interactions were significant predictors of alcohol consumption. For the Asian group, the only significant effect to emerge was that DRSE was negatively related to alcohol consumption.
The clinical implications of the differential pattern of results between the samples are discussed in terms of self-efficacy and negative consequences of alcohol consumption, especially when dealing with university aged individuals.
