Youth Drinking: The impact of socialisation agents and personal attitudes on alcohol consumption among the youth in South Africa Kagiso Matjila A research study submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Strategic Marketing (MMSM) Wits Business School May 2017 DECLARATION The work in this dissertation is my own original work. All of the sources which were used or referred to have been documented and acknowledged. This dissertation has not been previously submitted in full or partial fulfillment of the requirements for an equivalent or higher qualification at any other recognised education institution. ___________________________________ Kagiso Boitumelo Matjila Signed at …………………………………………… On the……………………………day of………………………2017 i DEDICATION I should like to dedicate this research report and the completion of the Master of Management Degree to my parents, Prof. Maila John Matjila and May Matjila – thank you for inspiring me to continuously strive to live my life as best as I can. Your continuous prayers and overwhelming support has carried me through this journey, and I will forever be grateful for that. This is just the start. May the good Lord keep you both with me long enough to see all my other plans materialise. ii ACKNOWLEGDMENTS I owe a great deal of gratitude to many people for supporting me in this journey to complete this research paper and the Masters in Management – Strategic Marketing degree. I should like to thank Dr Yvonne Saini, my dissertation supervisor, without whom I should never have completed this research. I am grateful for your support and commitment to the completion of this study. To the Wits Business School Faculty, MMSM Program Director, subject-matter Lecturers, and Programme Administrators, thank you for your support, dedication and for the knowledge presented on the course. A special mention goes to Professor Richard Chinomona who provided guidance, and expertise in the areas of statistical analysis for the purpose of this research. I should also like to thank my fellow MMSM 2016 Cohort members who participated in the course, as the healthy competition and your motivation helped to bring me to this point. I should like to thanks all participants who took part in my research. My greatest appreciation goes to my syndicate group members and members of “The Core”. Those late nights in the syndicate rooms and social sessions across the road marked some of my highlights of this journey. Lastly, but by no means the least important, I should like to acknowledge my family; parents and brother. Words cannot begin to express the special place you hold in my heart. Thank you for always believing in me, giving me words of encouragements, and supporting me throughout the years. I am eternally grateful. iii ABSTRACT The research investigated the impact of three socialisation agents (i.e. advertising, parents and peers) and personal attitudes on alcohol consumption among South Africa youth. There is a growing concern of the high and year-on- year increase in alcohol consumption in the country which has not only been linked to social ills such as crime, violence, sexual abuse, but also to health concerns. Of greater concern is the ever growing penetration of alcohol consumption among young people. The South African government has pledged its support to the World Health Organisation to reduce the harmful use of alcohol; and appointed an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) to develop programs that seek to reduce alcohol-related harm. The findings generated from this study provide insights into social influences and social interventions that might assist in reducing the harmful use of alcohol. The research employed a quantitative approach and was cross-sectional in design. Non-random quota sampling was employed and a total of 300 youths from Gauteng were issued with self-administered questionnaires. The young people were at different life stages; students, blue and white collar workers. Using SPSS 22 and AMOS 22 software programs, structural equation modelling (SEM) was performed to analyse the data set. The results revealed that personal attitude, peer influence, and advertising exposure have positive and significant influences on youth alcohol consumption. Parental influence had a positive, yet weak and unimportant, effect on youth alcohol consumption. The implication of the results in this study is that government, alcohol manufacturers and the community at large need to consider, and possibly prioritise, other harmful uses of alcohol interventions and address personal attitudes that young people have developed to reduce the effects of peer pressure. Key words: youth, alcohol consumption, alcohol advertising, parental influence, peer influence, attitudes, socialisation agents, harmful use of alcohol iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ......................................................................................... i DEDICATION ii ACKNOWLEGDMENTS .......................................................................... iii LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................ viii LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................... x 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................. 1 1.1 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY........................................................................................ 1 1.2 CONTEXT OF THE STUDY ........................................................................................ 1 1.3 WHAT INFLUENCES YOUTH ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ................................................. 6 1.4 PROBLEM STATEMENT ........................................................................................... 9 1.4.1 MAIN PROBLEM ....................................................................................................................9 1.4.2 SUB-PROBLEM 1 ............................................................................................................... 10 1.4.3 SUB-PROBLEM 2 ............................................................................................................... 12 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ............................................................................... 12 1.6 DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY .............................................................................. 14 1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS ......................................................................................... 15 1.8 ASSUMPTIONS .................................................................................................... 16 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................. 17 2.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 17 2.2 LEARNING THEORIES ........................................................................................... 17 2.3 SOCIAL LEARNING/COGNITIVE MODEL .................................................................. 18 2.3.1 CONDITIONING .................................................................................................................. 18 2.3.2 PROBLEM SOLVING ............................................................................................................ 19 2.3.3 IMITATION AND IDENTIFICATION .......................................................................................... 19 2.3.4 USE OF SYMBOLS .............................................................................................................. 19 2.4 CONSUMER SOCIALISATION THEORY .................................................................... 20 2.4.1 COGNITIVE ABILITY ............................................................................................................ 20 2.4.2 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT ...................................................................................................... 21 2.5 FACTORS INFLUENCING ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ................................................... 23 2.6 THE INFLUENCE OF ADVERTISING .......................................................................... 25 2.6.1 HOW ADVERTISING WORKS ................................................................................................ 26 2.6.2 ALCOHOL ADVERTISING AND CONSUMPTION ........................................................................ 28 2.6.3 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE ADVERTISING OF ALCOHOL ............................................................ 31 2.7 PARENTAL INFLUENCE ......................................................................................... 33 v 2.7.1 PARENTAL ALCOHOL USE ................................................................................................... 34 2.7.2 ALCOHOL SPECIFIC PARENTING (RULES AND ATTITUDES) ..................................................... 36 2.8 PEER INFLUENCE ................................................................................................ 37 2.9 PERSONAL ATTITUDES ........................................................................................ 39 2.9.1 ATTITUDE FORMATION ....................................................................................................... 41 2.10 CONCEPTUAL MODEL AND HYPOTHESIS STATEMENT .............................................. 42 2.11 CONCLUSION OF LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................. 43 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ....................................... 45 3.1 RESEARCH STRATEGY ......................................................................................... 45 3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN ............................................................................................. 47 3.3 POPULATION AND SAMPLE SELECTION .................................................................. 48 3.3.1 TARGET POPULATION ........................................................................................................ 48 3.3.2 SAMPLE METHOD AND SAMPLING SIZE................................................................................. 49 3.4 DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENT ........................................................................... 51 3.4.1 STRUCTURE OF RESEARCH DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENT ................................................ 51 3.4.2 RESEARCH INSTRUMENT ITEMS AND SOURCE ...................................................................... 53 3.5 PROCEDURE FOR DATA COLLECTION ..................................................................... 57 3.5.1 QUESTIONNAIRE DISTRIBUTION AND COLLECTION METHOD ................................................... 57 3.5.2 PILOT RESEARCH .............................................................................................................. 58 3.5.3 ETHICAL CONSIDERATION WHEN COLLECTING DATA ............................................................. 58 3.6 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION .................................................................. 60 3.6.1 DATA PROCESSING ........................................................................................................... 60 3.6.2 RESEARCH DATA ANALYSIS: STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELLING ........................................ 62 3.6.3 STATISTICAL SOFTWARE APPROACH ................................................................................... 63 3.6.4 TESTING FOR HYPOTHESIS ................................................................................................. 64 3.7 RESEARCH RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY MEASURES ................................................... 65 3.8 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY .................................................................................. 67 3.8.1 TECHNICAL LIMITATIONS .................................................................................................... 67 3.8.2 ADMINISTRATIVE LIMITATIONS ............................................................................................ 68 3.9 CONCLUSION OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY......................................................... 68 4 PRESENTATION OF RESULTS .................................... 70 4.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 70 4.2 SAMPLE DESCRIPTION ......................................................................................... 70 4.3 QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS .................................................................................... 73 4.3.1 ALCOHOL ADVERTISING EXPOSURE .................................................................................... 73 4.3.2 PARENTAL INFLUENCE ....................................................................................................... 76 4.3.3 PREDICTOR VARIABLE 3: PEER INFLUENCE ........................................................................ 82 4.3.4 PREDICTOR VARIABLE 4: PERSONAL ATTITUDES ................................................................. 87 4.3.5 OUTCOME VARIABLE: SELF-REPORTED ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ......................................... 90 4.4 STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELLING APPROACH ................................................... 94 4.4.1 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY TESTS IN CFA ........................................................................... 95 4.4.2 PATH MODELLING ............................................................................................................. 96 4.4.3 SUMMARY OF MEASUREMENT ACCURACY STATISTICS ........................................................ 96 4.4.4 STRUCTURAL MODEL TESTING ......................................................................................... 101 vi 4.4.5 HYPOTHESIS TESTING...................................................................................................... 102 4.5 CONCLUSION OF PRESENTATION OF RESULTS ..................................................... 104 5 DISCUSSION OF RESULTS ........................................ 106 5.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 106 5.2 ADVERTISING EXPOSURE AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ....................................... 107 5.3 PARENTAL INFLUENCE AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ........................................... 108 5.4 PEER INFLUENCE AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION .................................................. 108 5.5 PERSONAL ATTITUDE AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ............................................ 109 5.6 SUMMARY OF OVERALL ANALYSIS OF HYPOTHESES TESTING RESULTS .................... 110 6 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............... 111 6.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 111 6.2 OVERVIEW OF FINDINGS ..................................................................................... 111 6.2.1 ADVERTING EXPOSURE AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ...................................................... 112 6.2.2 PARENTAL INFLUENCE AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ........................................................ 112 6.2.3 PEER INFLUENCE AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ............................................................... 113 6.2.4 PERSONAL ATTITUDE AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ......................................................... 113 6.3 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY ................................................. 114 6.3.1 ADVERTISING EXPOSURE AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ................................................... 114 6.3.2 PARENTAL INFLUENCE AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ........................................................ 114 6.3.3 PEER INFLUENCE AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ............................................................... 115 6.3.4 PERSONAL ATTITUDE AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ......................................................... 115 6.3.5 OVERALL IMPLICATION OF THE STUDY ............................................................................... 115 6.4 RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................................................................... 116 6.4.1 RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE INFLUENCE OF ADVERTISING EXPOSURE AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ...................................................................................................................................... 116 6.4.2 RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE INFLUENCE OF PARENTAL INFLUENCE AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ...................................................................................................................................... 117 6.4.3 RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE INFLUENCE OF PEER INFLUENCE AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ...................................................................................................................................... 117 6.4.4 RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE INFLUENCE OF PERSONAL ATTITUDE AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ...................................................................................................................................... 118 6.4.5 OVERALL RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................................................................... 118 6.5 LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE STUDIES ..................................................................... 120 6.6 SUMMARY ........................................................................................................ 120 REFERENCES ..................................................................................... 122 APPENDIX 1: RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE ................................... 136 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: A Conceptual Model of advertising, parental, peer group influence, and on personal attitudes and youth alcohol consumption, adopted from Roedder’s model of consumer socialisation stage (Roedder, 1999). ............... 42 Figure 4.1: Predictor variable 1 results: Reported alcohol advertising exposure ......................................................................................................................... 75 Figure 4.2: Predictor variable 2 results: Parental influence – parental usage .. 78 Figure 4.3: Predictor variable 2 results: Parental influence - parenting: parenting (attitudes) ......................................................................................... 79 Figure 4.4: Predictor variable 2 results: Parental influence - parenting (drinking in their presence) ............................................................................................. 80 Figure 4.5: Predictor variable 2 results: Parental influence - parenting (drinking while they are not present) ............................................................................... 81 Figure 4.6: Predictor variable 2 results: Parental influence - parenting (drinking with friends)………………………………………………………………………… .. 82 Figure 4.7: Predictor variable 3 results: Peer influence - usage ...................... 84 Figure 4.8: Predictor variable 3 results: Peer influence -– attitude: (positive peers’ attitude) ................................................................................................. 85 Figure 4.9: Predictor variable 3 results: Peer influence - attitude: (encouragement from peers) ............................................................................ 86 Figure 4.10: Predictor variable 3 results: Peer influence – attitude: (complying with peers’ attitude) .......................................................................................... 87 Figure 4.11: Predictor variable 3 responses: Personal attitude ....................... 89 Figure 4.12: Outcome variable results: Self-reported alcohol consumption .... 91 viii Figure 4.13: Outcome variable results: Self-reported consumption: drinking at home ................................................................................................................ 92 Figure 4.14: Outcome variable results: Self-reported alcohol consumption: drinking at restaurant/bar ................................................................................. 93 Figure 4.15: Outcome variable results: Self-reported alcohol consumption: drinking at clubs or events ................................................................................ 94 Figure 4.16: Structural model ......................................................................... 102 ix
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