Tracking Changes in the Endorsement of Injunctive Drinking Norms in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic Using Longitudinal Alignment Analysis

• Published in: Assessment (Odessa, Fla.) Vol. 31; no. 2; pp. 237 - 247
• Main Authors: Wickham, Robert E., Steers, Mai-Ly N., Ward, Rose Marie, Liu-Pham, Ryan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.03.2024
• Subjects: Alcohol Drinking; COVID-19; Humans; Original; Pandemics; Students; Universities; COVID-19; longitudinal measurement invariance; injunctive drinking norms; alignment analysis; alignment-within-CFA
• ISSN: 1073-1911; 1552-3489
• DOI: 10.1177/10731911231158622

The onset of the pandemic saw shifts in messaging around the acceptability of alcohol consumption at different times and contexts. A psychometric analysis of responses to injunctive norms may reveal important differences in specific aspects of norms that were influenced by the pandemic. Study 1 used alignment analysis to evaluate measurement invariance in low- and high-risk injunctive norms across samples of Midwestern college students from 2019 to 2021. Study 2 used an alignment-within-confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) approach to replicate the solution from Study 1 in an independent longitudinal sample (N = 1,148) who responded between 2019 and 2021. For Study 1, the latent mean for high-risk norms was significantly higher in 2021, and the endorsement of four specific norms also differed. In Study 2, increases in latent means for low- and high-risk norms were observed across 2020 and 2021, and differential endorsement emerged for one high-risk norm item. Examining scale-level changes in injunctive drinking norms provides insight into how college students’ perceptions changed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.