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Sunday, October 25, 2009

Students' Drinker Prototypes and Alcohol Use in a Naturalistic Setting
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research Early View 23ct 2009

Perceptions about the type of people who drink, also referred to as drinker prototypes, may strengthen young people's motivation to engage in alcohol use. Previous research has shown that drinker prototypes are related to alcohol consumption in both adolescents and young adults. However, the evidence for the strength of these relationships remains inconclusive. One of the caveats in former studies is that all insights about prototype relations are based on self-reported data from youngsters themselves, mostly gathered in a class situation, which may contain bias due to memory distortions and self-presentation concerns.

These findings further establish the value of drinker prototypes in predicting young adults' drinking behavior and suggest that people's motivation to drink alcohol in real-life drinking situations is related to their perceptions about heavy drinkers.


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