Normative perceptions of cannabis use among european university students: Associations of perceived peer use and peer attitudes with personal use and attitudes
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVE: Perceptions of peer behavior and attitudes exert considerable social pressure on young adults to use substances. This study investigated whether European students perceive their peers' cannabis use and approval of cannabis use to be higher than their own personal behaviors and attitudes, and whether estimations of peer use and attitudes are associated with personal use and attitudes. METHOD: University students (n = 4,131) from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom completed an online survey as part of the Social Norms Intervention for Polysubstance usE in students (SNIPE) Project, a feasibility study of a web-based normative feedback intervention for substance use. The survey assessed students' (a) personal substance use and attitudes and (b) perceptions of their peers' cannabis use (descriptive norms) and attitudes (injunctive norms). RESULTS: Although most respondents (92%) did not personally use cannabis in the past 2 months, the majority of students thought that the majority of their peers were using cannabis and that their peers had more permissive attitudes toward cannabis than they did. When we controlled for students' age, sex, study year, and religious beliefs, perceived peer descriptive norms were associated with personal cannabis use (odds ratio [OR] = 1.42; 95% CI [1.22, 1.64]) and perceived injunctive norms were associated with personal attitudes toward cannabis use (OR = 1.46; 95% CI [1.09, 1.94]). CONCLUSIONS: European students appear to possess similar discrepancies between personal and perceived peer norms for cannabis use and attitudes as found in North American students. Interventions that address such discrepancies may be effective in reducing cannabis use.
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College students often overestimate the substance use of their peers.
“Previous research has shown college students often overestimate the substance use of their peers (Cox et al., 2019, Dempsey et al., 2016).”
From The substance use disorder treatment gap among US college students: Findings from the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2024) · cites this paper as Dempsey et al., 2016
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Dempsey, R. C., McAlaney, J., Helmer, S. M., Pischke, C. R., Akvardar, Y., Bewick, B. M., Fawkner, H. J., Guillen-Grima, F., Stock, C., Vriesacker, B., Van Hal, G., Salonna, F., Kalina, O., Orosova, O., & Mikolajczyk, R. T.
- Affiliations
- University of Bradford (GB)
- Bournemouth University (GB)
- Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology - BIPS (DE)
- Department of Psychiatry, Marmara University Medical School, Istanbul, Turkey
- University of Leeds (GB)
- Leeds Beckett University (GB)
- Department of Health Sciences, Public University of Navarra, Navarra, Spain
- Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA) (ES)
- University of Antwerp (BE)
- Medical Sociology and Health Policy, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
- Palacký University Olomouc (CZ)
- University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik (SK)
- Department of Educational Psychology and Health Psychology, PJ Safarik University in Košice, Košice, Slovakia
- Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (DE)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs
- Publisher
- Alcohol Research Documentation, Inc.
- Published
- 2016-09
- Volume
- 77
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 740-748
- ISSN
- 1937-1888 (ISSN-L)
- 1938-4114
- OpenAlex
- W2396880242
- Cited by
- 44
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 2.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- e-space.mmu.ac.uk
- Locations
- Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Staffordshire Online Repository (Staffordshire University) (acceptedVersion)
- Academica-e (Universidad Pública de Navarra) (acceptedVersion)
- e-space (Manchester Metropolitan University) (submittedVersion)
- Bournemouth University Research Online (Bournemouth University) (submittedVersion)
- Leeds Beckett Repository (Leeds Beckett University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Dspace Repository (Marmara Üniversitesi) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion)
- Dspace Repository (Marmara Üniversitesi) (submittedVersion)
- University of Southern Denmark Research Portal (University of Southern Denmark) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Sanofi
- European Commission
- ERAB: The European Foundation for Alcohol Research
- TrygFonden
- Sanofi Pasteur
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
- Keywords
- cannabis use, perceived peer norms, descriptive norms, injunctive norms, attitudes toward cannabis, university students, social pressure, substance use prevention, European students
- MeSH terms
- Attitude, Ethnicity, Europe, Female, Humans, Male, Marijuana Smoking, Peer Group, Surveys and Questionnaires, Social Perception, Students, Universities, Internet, Young Adult, Social Norms
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