The present study had two goals to research, through Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA): (1) testing the adequacy of TRA with regards to predicting intent to adopt behavior of non-use of alcoholic beverages and driving in university students; (2) testing the influence of three types of persuasive communication (positive, negative and irrelevant), based also on TRA, about the intention of adopting the aforementioned preventive behavior. For such, we considered a sample of 163 university students, 99 women and 64 men, with 18 to 42 yielding to experimental groups; considerable percentage variance of the dependent variable explained by the independent of the experimental and control-placebo groups; satisfactory and significant correlations for variables. The largest variance happened with the negative persuasive strategy of the dependent variable. Theoretical and methodological validity confirmed correlations to TRA. It became evident that different factors influenced the studied behavior, pointing out possible paths for planning programs whose aim is to stimulate no drinking and driving, and preventive strategies, as well as to bring new models (media, for example) to elucidate with greater realism the complexity of this behavior in this large population.
Alcohol; Traffic violations; Attitudes; Prevention