Underage Drinking, Respect for the Law,

and Fitting In:Were the Prophets of Prohibition

Right?

Hope Dischar & Perilou GoddardDepartment of Psychological Science

Northern Kentucky University

• Prohibition (1920-33) challenged our notion of ourselves as law-abiding citizens•Widespread

disregard for the laws of Prohibition were thought to undermine respect for all law

•More Prohibition fallout• Law breaking went from marginalized to

mainstream behavior

Parallels of Prohibition Today

• Underage drinking• Nearly 10 million

underage drinkers in 2010 (SAMHSA, 2010)

• Marijuana use• Nearly 17.4 million past-

month marijuana users in 2010 (SAMHSA, 2010)

Hypotheses

•Underage drinking and marijuana use would be associated with • less respect for the law• greater sense of “fitting in” with

mainstream society

Participants and Procedure• Participants• 162 undergraduates 18 to 20 years old• 105 females, 57 males• 10% were African-American, 3% were Hispanic, and

79% were White• Procedure• Participants completed all measures anonymously in

50-minute live sessions (not online)• Consent form, questionnaires assessing each of the

relevant variables, and debriefing

Measuring Alcohol and Marijuana Use

• We created indices based on self-reported frequency of use• 1: Have never used• 2: Have not used in past year• 3: Have used in past year but not in past month• 4: Have used on fewer than 10 days in past month• 5: Have used on 10 days or more in past month

Measuring Respect for the Law

• Respect for the Law Scale developed for this study to tap beliefs about the legitimacy of the law• 16 statements rated on 7-point Likert scales • 1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree

• Representative items• Laws in the U.S. are best described as “of the people,

by the people.”• We have the ability to change the laws we don’t agree

with by voting for officials who will represent our views.• We are obligated to obey the laws because we help

make the laws.• Moderate internal consistency (α = .84)

Measuring the Sense of “Fitting In”

• Scale developed by Cozzarelli & Karafa (1998) to measure the similarities between individuals’ personal beliefs/values and their perception of American beliefs/values• 9 statements rated on 7-point Likert scales • 1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree

• Representative items• I strongly identify with American values.• I feel that many of my values are more or less universal.

• Moderate internal consistency (α = .80)

Alcohol UseNational vs. NKU Data

• NSDUH data (2010) were calculated for persons aged 18 to 25• NKU data included ONLY 18- to 20-year olds

Alcohol Lifetime Prevalence

Alcohol 12-month Prevalence

NSDUH data

85.7% 78.7%

NKUdata

82.7% 77.2%

Marijuana UseNational vs. NKU Data

• It’s pretty clear that lots of NKU students like their cannabis!

Marijuana Lifetime Prevalence

Marijuana 12- month Prevalence

NSDUH data

51.1 % 29.8%

NKUdata

54.3% 43.2%

Hypothesis 1: More frequent underage drinking and marijuana use will be associated with less respect for the law

Correlation with Respect for Law

Scalep value

Underage Drinking Index -.14 .069

Marijuana Use Index -.20 .010

The hypothesis was partially supported:Marijuana use was significantly associated with less respect for the law, but underage drinking was not (at least not quite).

Hypothesis 2: More frequent underage drinking and marijuana use will be associated with a greater sense of “fitting in”

Correlation with “Fitting In” Scale p value

Underage Drinking Index .31 <.001

Marijuana Use Index .06 .429

Again, our hypothesis was partially supported:More frequent underage drinking was significantly associated with greater feelings of “fitting in,” but marijuana use was not.

Conclusions

• The prophets of Prohibition were partially right• Students who regularly violated the prohibition

against marijuana showed significantly less respect for the law• However, frequent underage drinkers did not• Perhaps drinking by underage college students is

so normative that they don’t even think of it as breaking the law

• Our data about fitting in are consistent with this explanation• The more frequently underage students drank,

the more they felt they fit in with mainstream America

Conclusions

Implications

• There is strong evidence that minimum legal drinking age laws have some benefits• e.g., reduced motor vehicle deaths

• However, these laws clearly do not serve as effective deterrents to drinking for many young people• Perhaps it’s time to think more creatively about

policies to reduce drinking-related harms without focusing so much on the legality of the drinking age