Alcohol consumption, locus of control, and self-esteem of high school and college students.

An Alcohol Consumption Questionnaire was designed to investigate 104 high school and 104 college students' drinking patterns in actual and hypothetical pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral situations. Students were also given Rotter's I-E Locus of Control Scale and Rosenberg's Self-esteem Inventory. College students drank significantly more than high school students after experiencing hypothetical pleasant events. Both groups drank more after hypothetical pleasant events than hypothetical unpleasant events and hypothetical neutral events. There were no significant group differences after experiencing hypothetical unpleasant events or neutral events. Students with high scores on locus of control tended to have higher self-esteem, greater drinking after hypothetical unpleasant events, hypothetical and actual pleasant events, and hypothetical and actual pleasant events, and hypothetical and actual neutral events. Frequencies of actual drinking and hypothetical drinking were highly correlated.

Perceptions of excessive alcohol consumption in stressful and nonstressful situations among undergraduates.

We devised and administered the Alcohol Perceptions Questionnaire (APQ) to 56 male and 51 female undergraduates in a small midwestern university. Findings yielded statistically significant results between the level of alcohol consumption reported by the subjects and their perceptions of excessive drinking in interpersonal situations, social group situations, and under conditions of subjective stress. The greater the amount of personal alcohol consumption among the sample, the less likely they viewed excessive drinking as a problem. In addition, subjects from lower income environments viewed excessive drinking in general as a problem, whereas subjects from higher income environments viewed excessive drinking as no problem at all.