Alcohol expectancies, pregaming, drinking games, and hazardous alcohol use in a multiethnic sample of college students

Pregaming is a risky drinking behavior that occurs when students drink alcohol before a primary social gathering or event. The paucity of research on pregaming highlights the need for research on the correlates of drinking behaviors, such as alcohol expectancies, that might increase the likelihood of pregaming. Thus, we sought to examine how alcohol expectancies and the valuations (i.e., desirability) of these expectancies are associated with frequency of pregaming, drinking game (DG) participation, and hazardous alcohol use. Students (N = 1327) from nine U.S. colleges and universities completed self-report surveys. Results showed sufficient discriminant validity among pregaming behaviors, DG participation, and hazardous alcohol use. Findings also revealed that pregaming mediated the associations between positive alcohol expectancies and hazardous drinking behaviors. Finally, when we tested for invariance across gender, ethnicity, and legal versus underage alcohol users, we found full invariance across gender and ethnicity, but not for legal versus underage alcohol users. Future research directions and potential implications for prevention efforts are discussed.