Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify psychosocial correlates of harmful alcohol use among young Mexican students, and to comparatively prove the predictive validity of three theoretical models, each one capable to support the research of the problem and to guide the design of theoretically and empirically grounded preventive and treatment programs: a) the alcohol expectancies theory, b) the social learning theory by R. Akers, and c) the planned behavior theory. Findings indícate that these three models are appropriate predictive models for harmful alcohol use in the studied group. The highest predictive weight belongs to positive expectancies associated to the effects of alcohol, followed by alcohol use among friends, low risk perception, and self-control of alcohol drinking as a protective factor. Findings suggest the convenience of the application of a composed multi-varied algorithm, integrated by factors and variables extracted from the three models.

Abstract

Most Latin American countries face important environmental and societal problems associated with an increase in car traffic, and only recently, transport policies aimed at reducing these harmful consequences of car use have begun to be discussed and put on the public agenda of these countries. Surprisingly, little is known about the factors influencing the acceptability of transport policies and intentions to reduce car use in Latin America, as studies on acceptability of transport policies have typically been conducted in Europe. Previous evidence from European samples - where reducing car used had been widely discussed - showed that the Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) theory of environmentalism was an adequate theoretical framework to predict the acceptability of a transport pricing policy, as well as the intention to reduce car use when this policy would be implemented. But can these results be generalised to non-European samples? In this paper, we report results of a questionnaire study among 160 participants from Buenos Aires, Argentina, aimed to test the VBN theory. We found that the VBN theory was indeed also successful in explaining policy acceptability and intention to reduce car use in Argentina. In addition, we found support for the causal structure of the variables in VBN theory. Interestingly, biospheric and hedonic values were also directly and significantly related to feelings of moral obligation when intermediate variables were controlled for. These results suggest that normative considerations, activated by values, indeed predict policy acceptability and the intention to reduce car use in Argentina and that these considerations should be taken into account to increase the acceptability of policies aimed at reducing car use. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.