The Impact of First Drinking and Differential Association on Collegiate Drinking

Abstract This paper discusses a survey conducted during the spring semester of 1994 at two state universities situated, respectively, in the midwestern and southern parts of the United States. Specifically, this paper examines the impact on collegiate drinking of onset age of drinking; definitional and association factors during the occasion of the first drink; and current definitions and associations, within the context of differential association theory and social learning theory. Early onset of drinking reflects a violation of role definition — a set of in part age-based social expectations that, among other things, discourages young teenagers from trying alcohol. Some factors associated with the first drinking experience, such as parental approval of the first drink and taking the first drink at home, were theorized to reflect the presence of more-conventional definitions and modeling by parents. The presence of parental guidance and controls should reduce the likelihood of problem drinking. Individuals who start to drink early and without parental approval or even knowledge may be more likely to engage in problem drinking in college. Selection bias could have been a problem in most earlier studies of this type. To examine whether nondrinkers who were absent in the final models of the present study biased the results, a two-stage selection equation predicting nondrinkers was estimated. The results show no evidence of a significant selection bias. Current norms and definitions of drinking, and associations with significant others who are drinkers, were expected (and confirmed by the data analysis) to mediate the effect generated by onset age of drinking and first drinking factors.