OBJECTIVETo explore the relationships between alcohol expectancy,cultural orientation, self-efficacy and drinking behavior to provide theoretical support for the development of education programs aimed at preventing alcohol abuse among adolescents.

METHODSAn anonymous quantitative survey of 2756 tenth and eleventh grade students in six senior high schools in Zhengzhou and Xinyang city of Henan province was conducted in November 2005 and data was analyzed by SPSS 13.0 software.

RESULTSThe overall rate of drinking alcohol among participants was 56.5%. The median score of cultural orientation was 3.25 (3.09, 3.42); of alcohol expectancy was 3.02 (2.81, 3.23); and 79.64 (60.36, 93.21) of alcohol self-efficacy. Direct or indirect relationships were found between Chinese traditional cultural orientation, western cultural orientation, alcohol positive expectancy, alcohol negative expectancy, alcohol self-efficacy and alcohol drinking behavior. Lower monthly drinking habit was directly associated with higher self-efficacy and higher negative expectancies,lower positive expectancies and lower western cultural orientation (coefficients = -0.346, -0.282, 0.234 and 0.162 respectively), but not with Chinese cultural orientation variables.

CONCLUSIONThe current situation of alcohol drinking among the participants was critical. Drinking behavior seemed most affected by drinking beliefs and cultural orientation, suggesting that the development of education programs should focus on students' beliefs.