Background: Drinking alcohol of adolescents is an important issue in Taiwan. The purpose of the research is to determine how drinking expectancy and drinking refusal self-efficacy influence drinking behavior among Taiwanese adolescents based on a cognitive model of alcohol consumption. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 908 students, selected from 10th to 12th grade of six high schools in Taiwan, were stratified randomly. Pearson correlation, and multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationships among drinking expectancy, refusal self-efficacy, and alcohol use, including drinking frequency and drunkenness frequency. Results: There was significant positive relationship between drinking expectancies, and drinking and drunkenness frequency; and negative correlation between drinking refusal self-efficacy, and drinking and drunkenness frequency. Multiple regression analysis revealed that (1) tension reduction, sexual enhancement, social pressure, emotional relief, and opportunity to drink significant predicted drinking frequency (Adjusted R² = 0.352, p < 0.001) and (2) tension reduction, increased confidence, cognitive enhancement, and social pressure significant predicted drunkenness frequency (Adjusted R² = 0.226, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Adolescents have positive outcome expectancies regarding increased drinking frequency. Under the pressure of social interaction, drinking was the most difficult to refuse. Alcohol expectancy and drinking refusal self-efficacy have both shown notable influences on Taiwanese adolescents.

Stigma associated with mental illness affects the ability of nursing students to learn core competencies. Few studies have examined the effects of different direct contact interventions on stigma toward mental illness. To examine the effectiveness of two contact interventions (inpatient contact and contact with people in recovery) on nursing students' cognition, attitudes, stigma, and social distance toward people with mental illness. A quasi-experimental three-arm study with four repeated measurements among two experimental groups and one control group. A total of 147 fourth-year nursing students were purposively sampled from two five-year junior colleges. The nursing students were grouped by class and allocated into contact with inpatient (n = 49) and people in recovery (n = 49) experimental groups, and a control group (n = 49). The Cognition for Mental Illness scale, Chinese-version Attitudes Toward Mental Illness, Perceived Psychiatric Stigma Scale, and Social-Distance Scale were used to determine cognition, attitudes, stigma and societal distance, respectively. A generalized estimating equation model was used to analyze data. Significant differences were found in cognition and attitudes between the two experimental groups and control group, while significant differences in stigma and social distance were only found between the contact with people in recovery group and control group. Direct contact with inpatients was associated with improvements in the nursing students' cognition and attitudes, while engaging with people in recovery was also associated with reduced stigma and social distance in addition to enhancing cognition and attitudes.