Drinking before going out: prepartying in Argentinean adolescents and its association with drinking norms and prepartying motives

Abstract

In Argentina, alcohol is the most consumed psychoactive substance among adolescents and, similar to other western countries, rates of alcohol use markedly increase during this developmental stage. Arguably more concerning, heavy episodic drinking (HED, a.k.a. binge drinking) is also highly prevalent. Heavy episodic drinking can be defined as the consumption of a large quantity of alcohol (i.e., > 42/70 g of pure alcohol, depending on sex and age) in one, rather brief, single setting. HED is associated with greater occurrence of a myriad of negative consequences such as alcohol-induced increments in impul-sivity and risk-taking behaviors, blackouts, drunk driving, sleep and eating impairments, and the development of tolerance. Prepartying (i.e., the consumption of alcohol before attending a social event where more alcohol might, or might not, be available) is a high-risk drinking practice due to its robust association with alcohol-related negative consequences. Different factors influence alcohol use and preparty behavior. Many adolescents overestimate the drinking behaviors of their peers (descriptive norms) which, in turn, is associated with heavier alcohol use. Additionally, previous work found that one of the main reasons or motives for engaging in preparty behavior is the desire of getting intoxicated. Although alcohol use is highly prevalent among Argentinean adolescents, studies focused on prepartying are very scarce. The present study (i) describes alcohol consumption and prepartying behaviors in Argentinean adolescents (13 to 18 years old), (ii) examines the effect of descriptive norms and prepartying motives on prepartying outcomes (i.e., frequency of prepartying and drinking quantity when prepartying) and (iii) examines variations in alcohol drinking outcomes as a function of prepartying. Participants were 402 adolescents (52.7 % women) that completed a pencil and paper survey that measured alcohol consumption, prepartying outcomes, descriptive norms for prepartying, prepartying motives and alcohol-related negative consequences. Most of the sample (83 %) reported lifetime alcohol use and 64 % reported last-month alcohol use. More than half of the sample (57 %) reported engaging in prepartying behavior within the last year where they consumed an average of 70 grams of alcohol. Most of the adolescents who prepartied (85 %) continued drinking alcohol at the event. Adolescents who engaged in preparty behavior, compared to their drinking peers who did not, consumed significantly more alcohol and experienced more alcohol-related negative consequences. Specifically, 90 % of the adolescents who engaged in preparty behavior reported to engaged in heavy drinking episodes within the previous month while 68 % of drinkers who did not preparty reported to engage in that drinking pattern. At the multivariate level, descriptive norms, but not prepartying motives, were significantly associated with preparty behavior. The present results suggest that prepartying could be a risk factor for the involvement in problematic trajectories of alcohol use and, therefore, it would be beneficial to prevent adolescents from engaging in this type of drinking practice. Additionally, the present findings suggest promising avenues for intervention, such as those aimed at targeting descriptive norms. Adolescents tend to overestimate drinking behaviors among their peers, a bias that is associated with heavier alcohol use. Interventions aimed at correcting these biases have shown promising results at reducing drinking behaviors.