ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN PEER DRINK DRIVING, PEER ATTITUDES TOWARD DRINK DRIVING, AND PERSONAL DRINK DRIVING

A cross-sectional survey of a population-representative sample of 785 Australian drinkers was used to identify associations between aspects of individuals' peer environments and the likelihood of them reporting drink driving. Multivariate analyses showed that drink drivers percei ved that a larger proportion of their drinking friends are drink drive rs and were less likely to perceive that their friends disapprove of d rink driving. A covariance analysis suggested that the belief that fri ends would disapprove may play a mediating role in the relationship be tween personal drink driving and that of peers. These findings suggest that peer group normative processes are associated with drink driving .