Research on alcohol use by college students suggests moving beyond traditional binge drinking criteria to identify at-risk drinkers. As such, a recent study examined whether drinking motives can distinguish extreme from lighter college student drinkers. This study analyzed data collected from college student drinkers that participated in other studies across multiple universities in the U.S. (n=3,518). At baseline and at a 6-month follow-up point, this study categorized college student drinkers into three groups: 1) non-binge drinkers (<4 drinks for women, <5 for men); 2) binge drinkers (4-7 drinks for women, 5-9 for men); 3) extreme drinkers (8+ drinks for women, 10+ for men). Results indicated that at baseline, extreme drinkers reported greater social, enhancement, and coping drinking motives compared with non-binge or binge drinkers. The authors then assessed whether changes in extreme drinking status from baseline to the 6-month follow-up point were associated with changes in drinking motives. Participants that became extreme drinkers over the 6-month period reported greater increases in social and enhancement motives compared with students that remained non-extreme drinkers. The reverse finding was also observed—participants classified as extreme drinkers at baseline that actually reduced their drinking over the 6-month period reporter greater decreases in enhancement and coping drinking motives.
Take Away: Results from this study support that drinking motives may distinguish extreme from lighter college student drinkers. As a result, prevention programs that focus on drinking motives may serve as an effective approach toward reducing extreme drinking by college students.