Implicit attitudes predict drinking onset in adolescents: Shaping by social norms.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Implicit attitudes toward alcohol predict drinking among adults and adolescents. If implicit attitudes reflected associations learned through direct experience with drinking, then they would likely only predict drinking among individuals who have previously consumed alcohol. In contrast, if implicit attitudes reflected indirect experience through social messages, they might also then predict future drinking, even among individuals with no drinking experience. In this study, we tested whether implicit attitudes would predict initiation of drinking for the first time, and whether parents' and friends' norms toward alcohol would influence the development of implicit attitudes.

Method

For this study, we followed 868 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15 years for 3

SUBMITTER: Payne BK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4979559 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature