APPLICATION OF THE THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR TO ADOLESCENT USE AND MISUSE OF ALCOHOL

This research assessed the plausibility and robustness of Ajzen's Theo ry of Planned Behavior (TPB) in predicting and explaining use, frequen cy of use and misuse of alcohol among 3946 fifth through eighth grade students in southeastern Michigan, The study also compared the effecti veness of the TPB and the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) in predictin g intention to use alcohol, Data for this secondary analysis were part of a longitudinal study, and were collected in March and May of 1987, Results provided strong support for the use of the TPB in this contex t and suggest that the model is fairly robust, All model components re ached significance at the 0.05 level, Intention to use alcohol explain ed up to 26% of the variance in use, 38% of the variance in frequency of use and 30% of the variance in misuse of alcohol, In addition, up t o 76% of the variance in intention to use alcohol was explained by att itudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. Although bo th models were effective in predicting intention to use alcohol, as ex pected, the TPB was more effective in predicting intention to use alco hol than was the TRA.