Article: Proximal Predictors of Alcohol Use Among Japanese College Students
Publication: Substance Use & Misuse, Volume 53
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Publication Date: October 23, 2017
Related WestEd Author: Staci Wendt
Related WestEd Program: Health & Justice Program

Do negative social interactions affect the drinking behavior of Japanese college students? They can, according to a recent study published in Substance Use & Misuse. Staci Wendt of WestEd’s Health & Justice Program co-authored the study which grew from her research on using diary or experience sampling methods to examine the relationships between social interactions, mood, and alcohol consumption.

The study looked at how perceived negative social interactions (e.g., disagreeing with a friend) predicted subsequent drinking behaviors among Japanese college students attending a university in Tokyo, Japan and students (from the same university in Tokyo) participating in an exchange program at a university in United States. Because of social influences on drinking behavior, and cultural norms for maintaining social harmony and making amends in response to social transgressions in Japanese culture, the authors theorized that students would drink more alcohol socially following increases in negative social interactions.

Researchers used a daily diary method to monitor the students in the study. “The benefit of a daily diary method is that you can build a drinking trajectory for each individual in the study and then examine causes of increases or decreases in an individuals’ typical alcohol consumption. For example, some individuals drink more in response to negative events (sometimes characterized as drinking to cope), whereas others drink more in responses to positive events (sometimes characterized as enhancement drinking),” Wendt says.

The findings confirmed their hypothesis. The students in the sample drank more socially in response to daily negative social interactions, consistent with the idea that the increased drinking represents students’ efforts to make peace with others.

Read the abstract.