PURPOSE. Despite a long history of prevention efforts and state laws prohibiting the consumption of alcohol for those below the age of 21 years, underage drinking continues at both a high prevalence rate and high incidence rate. The purpose of this research study is to model alcohol drinking conditioned on perception of peer drinking (norm perception). An acquisition model is conjectured. From a developmental perspective, drinking alcohol is acquired in a reasonably ordered fashion that reflects influences the culture, the family, peers, and individual characteristics. Social learning theory suggests mechanisms whereby individuals' perception of what is normative can influence actual drinking behavior. While the association between perception of norms and drinking behavior is established in earlier research, our study posits moderating effects of grade level, region, race/ethnicity, and gender used as coarse indicators of culture, family, and peer influences on normative perception. METHODS. The data is taken from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey of 8^th and 10^th grade students (n = 10,017). In multistage sampling like the one used in the MTF survey, the sample is selected in stages, with the sampling units at each stage being sub-sampled from the larger units drawn at the previous stage. Thus, it immediately becomes apparent that a sample obtained by multistage sampling is hierarchical in nature. In the present study, we proposed a three level model. Grade levels are termed level 3 units, regions correspond to level 2 units, while the students formed level 1 units. A three-level logistic regression was used to analyze simultaneously the moderating effects on the relationship between norm perception and drinking of grade level, region, gender, and race/ethnicity. RESULTS. Differences were observed between the 8th grade and the 10th grade on the influence of perception (OR = 1.261±.119, p < .01). This finding demonstrates that perception may influence 8th grade students more than 10th grade students. No differences were observed between the northeast region (OR = .96, p = .48), north central region (OR = 1.02±.117, p = .74), south region (OR = .94±.102, p = .27), in comparison to the western region on the influence of perception. It appears that perceptual influences are relatively equal across these four major regions in the United States. Male students perceive a particular level of classmate drinking, they have slightly less likelihood of drinking within the last 30 days (OR = .907±.084, p < .05) in comparison to females. No differences were observed regarding perception between white (OR = 1.012±.107, p = .84), black/African-American (OR = .924±.135, p = .32) in comparison to other race/ethnicity on the influence of drinking. IMPLICATIONS. The results suggest that norm correcting interventions in the 8^th grade will have greater influence over drinking behavior than norm correcting interventions in the 10^th grade. The importance of a better understanding of the process of acquiring drinking behaviors is discussed in relation to future research models with longitudinal data.