Sociocultural facets of Asian international students' drinking motives in the college context: examining social norm perception, language discrimination, and need to belong

Increasing numbers of Asian international students enter the U.S. each year; however, this group remains highly understudied. This is particularly true in regard to alcohol use and behavior. The purpose of the current study was to investigate if and how the sociocultural factors of social norm perception, perceived language discrimination, and need to belong relate to drinking motivation among Asian international students. Hierarchical regression was used with 194 self-identified Asian international student participants to analyze two separate three-way interactions. It was hypothesized that high social norm perceptions, greater perceived language discrimination, and high need to belong would interact to predict greater 1) drinking to cope, and 2) drinking to conform. Results did not support either hypothesis; however, main effects indicated that perceived language discrimination was related to drinking to cope and drinking to conform. In addition, need to belong and social norm perception interacted to predict drinking to conform. Implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.