Cross-cultural examination of college drinking culture in Spain, Argentina, and USA: Measurement invariance testing of the College Life Alcohol Salience Scale

Abstract

Objective: Perceptions about what is ?normal? drinking in college, measured by the CollegeLife Alcohol Salience Scale (CLASS; 15 items), have been robustly associated with elevatedlevels of problematic alcohol use, yet the role of these beliefs has not been studied outside theU.S. The present work examined measurement invariance of the CLASS across sex, drinkerstatus, and in individuals of three different countries (i.e., U.S., Argentina, Spain). Additionalgoals were to evaluate differences on the CLASS (i.e., latent mean differences) as a function ofsex, drinker status and country and to compare construct validity (i.e., correlations with alcoholvariables) across sex and different countries. Method: A large sample of 1,841 college studentsenrolled in universities from U.S., Spain and Argentina completed, via an online survey, abattery of instruments that assess college alcohol beliefs, drinking motives, alcohol consumptionand alcohol-related negative consequences. Results: We found that a shortened 12-item versionof the CLASS to be invariant across sex and drinker status, but only metric invariance was foundacross countries. As expected, men and drinkers showed significantly higher scores on theCLASS than women and non-drinkers, respectively. Bivariate correlations between CLASSscores and drinking outcomes strongly supported criterion-related validity of this measure acrossmultiple countries and sex with differing strengths in relationships with alcohol-relatedconstructs. Conclusions: Taken together, perceptions of the centrality of alcohol to the collegeexperience appear to be an important target for college student alcohol interventions acrossvarious cultures and countries, especially for male college student drinkers.