Coping, Drinking Motives, Goal Attainment Expectancies and Family Models in Relation to Alcohol Use among College Students

Abstract

Associations between coping responses, drinking motivations, expectations of meeting social and academic goals, and family of origin problem drinking and measures of college students' quantity/frequency of alcohol use and social complications of alcohol use were investigated in a sample of 218 college students. Positive associations were found between "emotion-focused" forms of coping such as detachment and the criterion measures, whereas "problem-focused coping" was not significantly associated with quantity/frequency of alcohol use or drinking complications. Positive correlations were also found between drinking motives, goal attainment expectancies and family models measures and the criterion measures. Regression models constructed for alcohol quantity/frequency and drinking complications implicated the total number of drinking motives, family models of problem drinking and the coping strategy of self-blame as strongly related to criterion measures. Positive social drinking motives and coping by seeking social support were implicated as possible protective factors.

Drinking Motives in the Prospective Prediction of Unique Alcohol-Related Consequences in College Students

“…The lack of effects of social motives on alcohol use and consequences replicates other cross-sectional work (Magid et al, 2007;Merrill and Read, 2010;Patrick et al, 2011). Other work also has shown nonsignifi cant associations between conformity motives and alcohol use (Crutzen et al, 2013;Magid et al, 2007;Merrill and Read, 2010;Patrick et al, 2011) and suggests that conformity motives may not be particularly relevant for college students (e.g., Karwacki and Bradley, 1996).…”

“…Motivational models of drinking (Cooper, 1994;Cox and Klinger, 1988) also consist of social motives (i.e., drinking to obtain social rewards or social interaction) and conformity motives (i.e., drinking to fi t in, to avoid social rejection). These motive types have less affect regulatory basis and are less frequently related to college drinking (Brown and Finn, 1982;Cooper, 1994;Johnston et al, 2003;Karwacki and Bradley, 1996;MacLean and Lecci, 2000). Nonetheless, research examining the impact of affectrelevant motives typically controls for the shared variance that exists across the range of motives for drinking (Cooper, 1994;Crutzen et al, 2013;Magid et al, 2007;Merrill and Read, 2010), allowing for isolation of the specifi c roles for coping and enhancement motives in drinking behavior.…”

How the quality of peer relationships influences college alcohol use

“…However, research evaluating the connection between peer relationships and personal alcohol use has been inconsistent and contradictory. For example, alcohol use in college students has been linked to both the presence [61][62][63] and absence [64][65] of social support in their lives. In addition, students have reported drinking heavily in both social [48,66] and solitary [67] drinking settings.…”

“…The relationship between a breakdown or lack of peer relationships with increased alcohol use is evident in the research linking alcohol use to reduced levels of intimacy with others [65], alienation [67], emotional pain [66], conflict with others [68,69] and low levels of support [62,[70][71]. In addition, alcohol use has also been associated with the denial of a need for social affiliations or affection [72] and alienation from others has been linked to increased motives to drink [64].…”

“…In addition, alcohol use has also been associated with the denial of a need for social affiliations or affection [72] and alienation from others has been linked to increased motives to drink [64]. Solitary drinkers also tend to consume more alcohol than students who drink in social situations [36,65,73].…”