Using the Social Media to Reinforce Binge Drinking Normative Behaviors: A Comparison of American and Australian College Students

Authors

Kyle Jones

Faculty Sponsor

Diane Schott

Abstract

The central purpose of this study shows how the overestimation of the perceived normative behavior of binge drinking is the focused behavior reinforced by social networking sites (SNS), which the modern college students have incorporated into socialization. With a cross-cultural comparison, this study shows how this phenomenon of normative behavior of binge-drinking, social drinking, and non-drinking varies between undergraduates from America and Australia. The online surveying tool, Qualtrics, was used to gather information using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and questions from the Pew Research center focusing on the social media. There were 119 combined undergraduate participants surveyed, from which the resulting data were used to correlate responses with the AUDIT test as well as cross culturally compare results. The results were valid with each schools results coinciding with AUDIT binge drinking test. The normative behaviors were also analyzed showing that there are different social media behaviors being in the two countries.

Recommended Citation

Jones, Kyle (2012) "Using the Social Media to Reinforce Binge Drinking Normative Behaviors: A Comparison of American and Australian College Students," Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado: Vol. 2: No. 2, Article 6.
Available at: https://digscholarship.unco.edu/urj/vol2/iss2/6