PREDICTING ADOLESCENTS INTENTIONS TO DRINK ALCOHOL - OUTCOME EXPECTANCIES AND SELF-EFFICACY

Objective: This article examines the relationship between intention to drink alcohol, alcohol outcome expectancies and alcohol-related self- efficacy among Norwegian adolescents. The relationship of expectancies , intention and self-efficacy was assessed for respondents of differen t ages and different drinking experience. Method: Data were collected from all seventh and ninth graders in 12 randomly selected schools in Norway. The self-administered questionnaire contained a short version of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire for Adolescents and measures o f intentions to drink in the next 12 months, current alcohol use and a lcohol-related self-efficacy (e.g., ability to refuse alcohol). Result s. Results showed that both alcohol outcome expectancies and previous experience with alcohol were related to intentions to drink alcohol in the near future, Drinking experience had a larger impact than a 2-yea r age difference on the associations between alcohol outcome expectanc ies, alcohol-related self-efficacy and intention to drink. A significa ntly higher proportion of adolescents with drinking experience reporte d positive alcohol expectancies, poor alcohol-related self-efficacy an d strong intention to drink alcohol than did those adolescents without drinking experience. Conclusions: Personal drinking experience was a stronger predictor of drinking intentions than was age. Still, both al cohol outcome expectancies and alcohol-related self-efficacy are signi ficant predictors of intention to drink among both seventh and ninth g raders, independent of previous drinking experience. This study indica tes that postponing the onset of alcohol experimentation could be a ma jor goal in primary alcohol prevention among adolescents, although lon gitudinal confirmation of these results is needed.