Perfectionism and alcohol use outcomes in college students: the moderating role of alcohol protective behavioral strategies

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the moderating role of alcohol protective behavioral strategy (PBS) types (stopping/limiting drinking – SLD; manner of drinking – MOD; serious harm reduction – SHR) on the relationships adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism have with alcohol use and alcohol-related negative consequences (ARNC).

Materials and methods: Participants included 526 traditional-aged college students (M_age = 19.77, 80.7% female, 60.2% White non-Hispanic) who reported alcohol consumption in the past thirty days and completed measures of perfectionism, typical weekly drinking, ARNC, and PBS use.

Results: PBS-SHR moderated the relationships between adaptive perfectionism and typical weekly drinking such that the negative association between adaptive perfectionism and typical weekly drinking was weakest for those reporting more PBS-SHR use. Additionally, PBS-SHR moderated the relationship between adaptive perfectionism and ARNC such that the negative association between adaptive perfectionism and ARNC was weakened for those using more PBS-SHR.

Conclusions: These results suggest the protective value of adaptive perfectionism and PBS-SHR for college students who tend to engage in frequent alcohol consumption. Therefore, alcohol prevention and intervention efforts may consider targeting personality variables, such as perfectionism, in relation to alcohol use behaviors.

Keywords:

• College alcohol use
• protective behavioral strategies
• perfectionism
• alcohol-related negative consequences

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethics statement

This project received institutional review board approval was conducted adhering to the American Psychological Association’s research ethics guidelines which includes providing informed consent, ensuring confidentiality, and management of participant welfare.

Notes

1 A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was run to evaluate the degree to which PBS types moderated the associations adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism had with hazardous drinking as measured by the United States Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test – Consumption (USAUDIT-C). Although step one of the model containing main effects of the entered variables was significant (R² = 0.17, p < .001), step two of the model containing the interaction terms was not (R² = 0.18, ΔR² = 0.01, p = .10). Thus, no interaction terms could be evaluated when examining hazardous drinking as the outcome variable (Field 2013).