Harmful alcohol drinking is a significant danger to students’ lives on college campuses. According to the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, roughly 9% of full-time college students aged 18 to 22 are categorized for past year Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). Another recent report shows that approximately 1,519 college students die due to unintentional injuries related to alcohol. Drinking habits that are developed in college can grow into drinking problems that can stick with an individual throughout their life. The goal of this study was to examine the associations between drinking motives and alcohol use and the moderating effects of gender.
The study consisted of 172 students, all at least 21 years of age. Data collection took place between April 2018 and May 2019. Drinking motives were measured and consisted of four distinct motives: social, coping, enhancement, and conformity. Alcohol use and demographics such as gender, ethnicity, year in college, and household income were also measured. Data was collected via online surveys. Women made up over 70% of the study’s participants. The rates of social drinking, high-risk drinking, alcohol use, and alcohol dependence were about 75.6%, 22.1%, 0.6%, and 1.7%, respectively.
In this study, 24.4% of participants were identified as having a drinking problem based on their alcohol use disorder identification test (AUDIT) score. Social motives were also found to be the highest drinking motives. Coping motives were significantly associated with drinking, those who drank by coping motives showed a much higher level of alcohol use. Gender was found to have a significant association between coping motives and alcohol use. One example is that female students’ use was found to increase significantly when drinking by coping motives, whereas male use was found to increase gradually. This study suggests that there is an importance of policies and intervention programs that consider the effects of drinking motives and gender on alcohol use in college students.
Takeaway: Gender was found to have a significant association between coping motives and alcohol use.