Impact of a citation on underage drinking behaviors: gendered differences

Abstract

Underage drinking is integrated into the college culture and carries negative consequences such as underage drinking citations. A more critical look into this topic is important as the frequency of underage drinking remains high and current intervention methods have not been proven to be effective (Spoth, Greenburg & Turrisi, 2009). This nonrandom pilot study investigated attitudes about underage drinking by surveying 101 male and female college students living on a Midwestern college campus. It was hypothesized that males would be less likely than females to change their drinking behaviors if they received an underage drinking citation. We found support for our hypothesis in that males were approximately 20% less likely to see an underage drinking citation as a deterrent for them to continue drinking underage than females. Implications for practitioners include being attentive to the gender differences when designing alcohol prevention programs and not assuming that a citation will serve as a deterrent. Future research would benefit from a large, randomized national sample and a mixed methods approach to include the qualitative lived experience of the participants.