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Título
Applicability of the Theory of Planned Behavior for Predicting Alcohol Use in Spanish Early Adolescents
Autor(es)
Assunto
Alcohol use
Adolescence
Planned behavior
Attitudes
Resistance strategies
Clasificación UNESCO
3212 Salud Publica
Fecha de publicación
2020
Editor
MPDI
Citación
Cutrín, O., Fadden, I. M., Ayers, S. L., Kulis, S. S., Gómez-Fraguela, J. A., & Marsiglia, F. F. (2020). Applicability of the theory of planned behavior for predicting alcohol use in spanish early adolescents. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(22). https://doi.org/10.3390/IJERPH17228539
Resumen
[EN] According to the theory of planned behavior (TPB), intentions to perform a specific behavior are the result of attitudes, norms, and perceived control, and in turn, intentions and perceived control are the main predictors of the behavior. This study aimed to test the applicability of TPB in predicting alcohol use in normative pre-adolescents. The sample was composed of 755 Spanish adolescents aged 11 to 15 (M = 12.24; SD = 0.56), 47.1% females, from 12 state secondary schools in Spain. The results of path analysis indicate that positive attitudes towards alcohol, favorable norms towards alcohol, and offer vulnerability (perceived control) are significantly positively related to intentions to use alcohol as well as negatively related to actual behavioral control (i.e., actual strategies to avoid alcohol use). In turn, intentions to use and actual control predict higher alcohol frequency and heavy drinking. Significant indirect effects of these antecedents were found on alcohol outcomes through the mediation of intentions and actual control. The findings suggest that the validity and applicability of the TPB in normative pre-adolescents depend on the severity of alcohol use and point to a need to consider negative social influence in decision making processes in early adolescence.
URI
ISSN
1661-7827
DOI
doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228539
Versión del editor
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