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The Moderating Role of Cognitive Capacities in the Association Between Social Norms and Drinking Behaviors
Author(s) -
Meisel Samuel N.,
Colder Craig R.,
Hawk Larry W.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/acer.12710
Subject(s) - association (psychology) , psychology , social cognitive theory , cognition , social psychology , psychiatry , psychotherapist
Background The literature documents 2 related yet distinct social normative influences on adolescent drinking. Descriptive norms refer to perceptions of how much others engage in a particular behavior, whereas injunctive norms refer to the extent to which others approve of a particular behavior. Theoretical formulations suggest that whether descriptive or injunctive norms guide drinking behavior depends on cognitive factors related to executive functioning. Cognitive capacities, specifically inhibitory control (IC) and preplanning, were tested as moderators of the association between social norms and alcohol use using a longitudinal design and community sample of adolescents. Methods This longitudinal study included 387 adolescents and 3 annual waves of data. Behavioral tasks assessed IC (Stop Signal Task) and preplanning (Tower of London) and social norms and drinking were assessed using self‐report measures. Results Significant interactions were found for descriptive and injunctive norms with preplanning and descriptive norms with IC. As hypothesized, descriptive norms were stronger prospective predictors of alcohol use at low levels of cognitive preplanning, whereas injunctive norms were stronger prospective predictors at high levels of cognitive preplanning. Descriptive norms prospectively predicted alcohol use at high, but not at low levels of IC. Conclusions These findings highlight the complexity of normative influences and suggest that descriptive and injunctive norms have differential effects on future drinking for individuals with different cognitive capacities.