Parents, Peers, and Alcohol

Boyd, Corbin, and Fromme did a study to evaluate the influence peers and parents on alcohol use during a student's transition out of college and into the adult world. They used 3,360 college students of various ethnicities and gave them a survey about their parents and grandparents drinking habits. They then followed the students for their college experience and transition afterwards, checking their alcohol use during their senior year and annually for the first two years after graduation. They measured the effects of peer selection, peer socialization, and family drinking habits during each of these years to see if these factors affected the student's amount of drinking.

The findings of this study were quite interesting. They found that peer selection had an affect on drinking immediately after graduation and up to one year later. The students tended to choose groups that they perceived as having similar drinking habits as them and being around these groups tended to reinforce their current drinking habits. However, it was found that socialization effects did not influence drinking habits immediately after college, inferring that college friends do not always continue to influence students once they graduate. Effects due to socialization were seen a year after college, though, which suggests that the group of friends formed after college will effect drinking habits as the student begins their adult life. Family drinking habits influenced the students both directly and indirectly after graduation. Students from homes of lighter drinkers, tended to drink less during the year following college. Although the direct family influence tends to wear off after the first year, it continues to influence them through peer selection, because the students continue to gravitate towards friends of similar drinking habits as their family.

The two major implications of this study are that as college students get ready to graduate, they should be careful about the groups of friends they choose, and aware of the influence their family will have on their drinking. On the other side, parents should be careful to positively influence their children towards moderation. Also, more studies should be done to find out more details about this subject.
The limitations of this study include the fact that over half the sample was white, over half the sample was female, and it only included students from one university. Also, it only included students who took only four years to graduate, and did not include any students who dropped out before graduation.

Boyd, Stephen J., Corbin, William R., Fromme, Kim. (2014). Parental and Peer Influences on Alcohol Use           During the Transition Out of College. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, Advanced Online                       Publication.,1-9. doi:org/10.1037/a0037782
Abstract