Interpersonal communication among vocational community college students about alcohol use and binge drinking Causality, content, and conversation partner

In the Netherlands binge drinking among vocational community college students is a serious problem. Among this group, binge drinking is a serious health problem. Recent statistics show that 31% of vocational community students consume on average 5-10 alcoholic units, 19% consumes 11-20 alcoholic units, and 14% consumes more than 20 alcoholic units per weekend. These alarming facts suggest that more research is needed on the predictors of vocational community college students’ alcohol use and binge drinking behaviour in order to develop more effective interventions that encourage appropriate drinking behaviour. Research on alcohol use and binge drinking has revealed that interpersonal communication about drinking alcohol and peer influence are important predictors of alcohol use and binge drinking. With regard to interpersonal communication, previous studies demonstrated that positive conversations about alcohol use resulted in positive intentions engage in alcohol use. As to peer influence, it has mainly been found that popular peers were more able to influence others’ determinants of alcohol use. Although interpersonal communication and peer population have been identified as relevant and consistent predictors of people’s alcohol use, their influence have never been examined amongst vocational community college students. Instead, most previous studies have focused on traditional college students. Therefore, the results of previous studies can not be generalized amongst different vulnerable populations, such as vocational community college students. The main objective of this dissertation was to investigate interpersonal communication and peer popularity as potential predictors of vocational community college students’ binge-drinking determinants.