Development and validation of the perceived approval of Risky Drinking Inventory in undergraduate students.

Objective: Undergraduates frequently engage in risky drinking (i.e., drinking alcohol in ways that may result in problems). The reasoned action approach identifies injunctive norms (i.e., perceptions that others approve of risky drinking) as central in predicting engagement in risky drinking. However, research linking injunctive norms and risky drinking is equivocal, possibly because of extensive variability in the operationalization of injunctive norms across studies. This study describes the development and validation of the Perceived Approval of Risky Drinking Inventory (PARDI), designed according to best practice guidelines in questionnaire development. Method: Undergraduate students (N = 1,313) participated in one of the three phases of data collection, including focus group interviews for item generation (n = 31), self-report questionnaires for scale refinement (n = 407), and self-report questionnaires for scale validation (n = 875). Results: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a 20-item four-factor solution (Heavy Drinking, Drinking-Related Problems, Coping-Related Drinking, and Sexual-Risk Taking) across the three assessed referent groups (friends, parents, and typical students), all of which present satisfactory estimates of scale score and composite reliability. The results also provided preliminary support for the convergent validity of scores obtained on the PARDI, as demonstrated through correlations with other measures of perceived norms, alcohol use, alcohol-related problems, and coping-motivated drinking. Finally, the results supported the generalizability of the PARDI factor structure by demonstrating its measurement invariance across gender and drinking status (i.e., alcohol use and problems). Conclusions: The PARDI represents a reliable, valid, yet nuanced measure of injunctive norms that can be used to support further theory development and intervention.