The misperceived social norm of drunkenness among early adolescents in Finland

Abstract

Adolescents tend to overestimate peer drinking; the resulting misperception of the social norm predicts the child’s own future drinking. This study examined the misperception’s relatedness to a person’s drinking pattern in order to facilitate the segmentation of the audience for health education interventions. Adolescent Health and Lifestyle Survey (Finland) data on 14 year olds’ drinking patterns and perceptions of peer drinking were gathered using self‐administered mailed questionnaires in 1989 (N = 3105, response rate 77%), 1995 (N = 8382, 79%) and 2001 (N = 7292, 70%). The perceptions of peer drinking were significantly related to respondents’ drinking patterns. Non‐drinkers and those drinking recurrently until drunkenness held reasonably correct views of their peers’ drinking. However, the segment between these two extremes comprising around half of the cohort incorrectly thought that their peers drank more; they misperceived the normative drinking pattern to be drunkenness. From health education perspective, three different target audiences can be identified: non‐drinkers, moderate drinkers and heavy drinkers. The intermediate group, drinkers not normally getting drunk, holds the view most influenced by the social norm misperception and are likely to feel pressured to increase their drinking. The social norms marketing approach to health education should find this group the most viable target.