College-aged students that experience FoMO tend to drink more drinks in a drinking session than students that experience less FoMO. FoMO (fear of missing out) is related to alcohol use. Not only did the amount of drinks per session increase for the participants that experienced more FoMO, “those more likely to ‘fear missing out’ reported twice as many instances of alcohol related harm over the past three months” (Riordan et al., 2015). FoMO is defined as the feeling of missing out on rewarding experiences one’s peers get to engage in. Fear of missing out may lead to students attending more parties which in turn, results in more drinks per drinking occasion. When looking at previous data, it is commonly found that binge drinking decreased from 2019 to 2020 and it is hypothesized that one of the reasons for this, may be due to the loss of peer pressure (Ryerson et al., 2021). In Peer Influences on College Drinking: A Review of the Research found that the most common types of peer pressure were “overt offers of alcohol, modeling and social norms” (Borsari & Carey, 2001). The purpose of this study is to identify a correlation between FoMO and peer pressure as well as if peer pressure and FoMO have changed drinking behaviors from before Covid-19 to now. Data is currently in progress via an online survey at a mid-sized midwestern university. The measures that are being used in this study are the FOMO and College Alcohol Use scale and eight questions regarding peer pressure and FoMO. It is anticipated that after a full school year with strict Covid-19 regulations, the combination of FoMO and peer pressure will cause an increase in drinking amongst college students post pandemic.These factors can result in risky drinking behaviors that can lead to serious consequences.
How Has Peer Pressure and FoMO Surrounding Drinking Changed from Before Covid-19 To Now?
Category
Psychology 2