The Interactive Effects of Drinking Motives, Age, and Self-Criticism in Predicting Hazardous Drinking

ABSTRACT

Background: Individuals who disclose hazardous drinking often report strong motives to drink, which may occur to modulate views of the self. Investigating self-criticism tendencies in models of drinking motives may help explain who is more susceptible to drinking for internal or external reasons. As much of the research on drinking motives and alcohol use is conducted in young adult or college student samples, studying these relations in a wider age range is clearly needed. Objectives: The current study examined the interactive relationship between drinking motives (internal: coping, enhancement; external: social, conformity), levels of self-criticism (internalized, comparative), and age to predict hazardous drinking. Methods: Participants (N = 427, M_age = 34.16, 54.8% female) who endorsed drinking within the last year completed an online study assessing these constructs. Results: Results indicated internalized self-criticism and drinking to cope interacted to predict hazardous drinking for middle-aged adults. However, comparative self-criticism and conformity motives interacted to predict greater hazardous drinking for younger-aged adults. In addition, both social and conformity motives predicted less hazardous drinking for middle-aged adults high in comparative self-criticism. Conclusions/Importance: Interventions that target alcohol use could minimize coping motivations to drink while targeting comparative self-criticism in the context of social, and conformity motives.

KEYWORDS:

• Drinking motives
• hazardous drinking
• age
• self-criticism

Glossary

• Drinking motives: Basic psychological reasons underlying one's alcohol use behavior.

• Hazardous drinking: A quantity or pattern of alcohol use that places individuals at risk for adverse health events.

• Self-criticism: Negative views of the self, involving falling short of one's own standards (i.e., internal) or falling short in comparison with others (i.e., external).

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kayla D. Skinner

Kayla D. Skinner, M.A., is a graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at the University of Arkansas. Her research examines the social cognitive mechanisms that contribute to self-regulation failure in temptation situations. Overall, Kayla is interested in investigating real-world applicability and contextual influences to better understand the implementation of social-cognitive processes in self-regulatory behaviors.

Jennifer C. Veilleux

Jennifer C. Veilleux, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Psychological Science at the University of Arkansas. Her research is at the intersection of social and clinical psychology, and focuses broadly on emotion and self-regulation. In particular, she is interested in how emotion and self-regulatory processes influence risk behaviors, including substance use, non-suicidal self-injury, and binge eating.