The relationship between college students' schema regarding alcohol use, their television viewing patterns, and their previous experience with alcohol

Two hundred college students participated in an experiment investigating how individuals use television and real world experiences to construct alcohol use schema. Students were asked to write a story about a student who had a difficult day and, on arriving home, fixed himself a drink. In randomly assigned conditions, directions led the student to believe this was to be either a real world scenario or the setting for a television episode. Stories were coded for setting and social nature of use, quantity of use, consequences (both severity and valence), and overall tone. In general, stories characterized alcohol use as heavy, social, relaxing, and resulting in mostly minor consequences. Story characteristics did not differ based on direction type (real world vs, TV scenario). Students also completed a series of measures regarding television viewing habits, attitudes about alcohol use, and past experiences with use. Regarding television viewing patterns, those who watched more television overall created stories with more alcohol use. Viewing of dramas in particular was associated with less severe consequences as a result of use. In terms of personal experience with use, individuals who had driven under the influence of alcohol were more likely to construct a story with a positive tone and those who had passed out from drinking were less likely to conclude their stories with a moral tale discouraging drinking. The conclusion of this research is that both personal and observed experiences are important influencing factors in individuals' schema regarding alcohol use.