Cross Culture Comparative:Investigation Of Drinking Behavior And Influencing Factors Of College Student In The U.S And China

ObjectivesThrough investigation of drinking behavior of Chinese and American students, the experiment is conducted to acquire information of the present situation of drinking behaviors as well as differences between the college students from two the countries. Also, cross-cultural factors are discussed, which might provide useful guidance in controlling alcoholic behavior of college students.MethodsUsing questionnaire of pressure perception, impulsivity, DSM-IV(Alcohol) and drinking behavior of family-related social environment questionnaire, the study explored the characteristics and differences of drinking behavior between Chinese and American college students. A total of1496effective questionnaires were obtained in China, and1190American effective questionnaires were obtained. The x2was used to analyze the data of Classification, the t-test was used to analyze quantitative data, and the SEM was used to analyze the drinking behavior factors.ResultsFirst, Chinese version of pressure perception questionnaire, impulsivity questionnaire, sick drinking questionnaire, drinking motives questionnaire are of good reliability and validity.Second, drinking is common in college students. In drinking amount, most college student drink less than10cups per week. In this range, Chinese students outnumbered the US students. While in the range of10to30cups, the US students outnumbered the Chinese students. In drinking duration time, the US students outnumbered Chinese students in the range of2-10hours per week. In drinking frequency,42.92%college students in the US drinks at least within the last week, and14.50%within two weeks ago, which all are higher that the counterparts of Chinese side. In the recent month and year,22.22%and39.93%, respectively, of Chinese students drinked, which is higher than that of the US. For the first-time-drinking-age, significant difference between students from the two countries is observed. In between15-18, there is a marked increase in population of first-time drinking both in the US and China. In drinking scenarios, significant difference is also observed, while both have school, working place, and restaurant in common. Students from the US tend to drink in friends’place, home and bars. In drinking motives, significant difference is observed in social motive, coping motive and optimization motives. In the aspect of pathological drinking, Chinese and American college students are different.Third, the influencing factors of internal mechanisms of United States and Chinese college students’ stress perception and pathological drinking are different. Chinese college students’ stress perception affects the pathological drinking behavior through family and social factors, with partial mediation role. American college students stress perception affects pathological drinking behavior by impulsive effects, impulse in the stress perception and problem drinking plays a mediation effect completely.ConclusionsThe results of this study showed that Chinese and American college drinking behavior was common. Under different cultural background, there are individual differences in drinking behavior between the US and Chinese college students, including amount of drinking, duration time of drinking, the first-time-drinking-age, recent drinking time, motives of drinking and drinking scenarios. Besides, individual’s pathological drinking behavior is influenced by stress perception, whose mechanism also demonstrated the cross-cultural difference. Chinese college students’ stress perception affects the pathological drinking behavior through family and social factors, and American college students stress perception affects pathological drinking behavior by impulsive effects. Research results support the theory of the diversification of addiction, which integrates the psychological model and the social model of problematic drinking behavior. By cross-cultural comparison study of drinking behavior, culture and conception theory model is further demonstrated.