Alcohol Advertisement and the Link Between Alcohol Consumption in Pupils and Peers

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An ANOVA was conducted to assess the difference between males and females in relation to the scores of alcohol consumption. It was found that there was a significant difference between age and BMI for males and females. A significant difference was found for both the AUDIT-C Alcohol Consumption [F (1, 377) = 20.65, P

A significant negative correlation (r = -.223, p = .03) existed between participant’s age of first drink and AUDIT-C Friend Alcohol Consumption. This indicates that as the age of someone’s first drink increased the amount of alcohol consumed by friends decreased. It was also found that a significant positive correlation existed between the measures of both the AUDIT-C Alcohol consumption (r = .44, p

Discussion

The aim of the present study was to examine the link between alcohol advertisements on television and the frequency of drinking habits amongst university students, along with whether there is a link between said habits of university students and their peers. It was predicted that there would be a positive link between advertisements and alcohol consumption, additionally that a positive effect would be found between university students alcohol consumption when compared to their friends.

Results from the present study found significant positive results between the amount of alcohol consumed by university students and the consumption of alcohol by their friends. This result implies that the more that one’s friends drink it is more likely for that person to drink more themselves which is different to what has been found in previous research. Results also showed that the more alcohol students consumed, along with the more their friends consumed, the more likely that it was for those people to enjoy advertisements on TV displaying alcohol more than advertisements for other products.

Our results reaffirm the findings of previous research in relation to alcohol advertisements based on the fact that exposure to said advertisements and their enjoyment towards them, the more prevalent it became in how often students drink. However our findings that students are more likely to drink based on their friends amount of alcohol consumed is opposite to what has been found in previous research. Limitations of the current study include that self-report measures were used which are not always an accurate representation of factual evidence due to participants perhaps lying about their answers, along with not having the largest or broad sample size.

Based on results found, our hypotheses were for the most part supported but further research should be done due to conflicting results when compared to previous studies. Further investigation is necessary to determine the exact reasons of the effects of alcohol advertisement on alcohol consumption and the effects of friends drinking habits on ones own alcohol consumption.

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