Consuming Alcohol to Prepare for Adulthood: An Event History Analysis of the Onset of Alcohol Use among Chinese College Students

Heavy episodic drinking among college students is a common but scarcely researched public health problem in China. Although social drinking could be regarded as an enjoyable activity across cultures, the Chinese cultural belief about alcohol use is different from that of its Western counterpart, which has been richly evidenced in the research literature. Specifically, Chinese college students may consider social drinking as a venue for practicing an important social skill and preparing for life after college. This project introduces and tests the concept of "drinking as preparation for adulthood." An approximate longitudinal study was conducted with a purposive sample of 338 college students (65.5% as females) in Southern China. An event history analysis confirms that drinking as preparation for adulthood is a significant predictor of college drinking onset. Findings indicate that culturally unique psychological factors can provide valuable alternative explanations and expand the scientific validity of theories established in the West.