Drinking motives and college alcohol problems: a prospective study

Abstract

Alcohol misuse among college students is well-documented, and cross-sectional research has identified attempts to cope with unpleasant emotions, enhance pleasant emotions, facilitate social interactions and conform to peers as distinct motivational pathways impacting alcohol-related consequences. Despite these findings, results from the prospective literature have been mixed. In the current study, a multi-institutional sample of first-year college students was surveyed at two points in time to measure alcohol-related problems and students’ drinking motives. Cross-lagged structural models indicate that pleasant emotion enhancement and depression coping motives were positively related to changes in alcohol-related problems over time. These results suggest interventions and prevention programs which focus on students’ use of alcohol to alter their emotions should be given greater attention.

• Alcohol
• college students
• drinking motives
• psychology

Acknowledgements

Peter M. Vernig is now at the Department of Clinical Services, Friends Hospital. This article is based on a dissertation by the first author under the mentorship of the second author, and submitted to the Department of Psychology at Suffolk University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree.

The authors would like to thank Amy Marks and Matthew Jerram for their assistance and feedback in the preparation of this manuscript.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.