Intolerance of Uncertainty, Drinking Motives, and Alcohol Consumption in a Community Sample of Emerging Adults

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU), a disposition to see uncertainty as negative, is a unique construct associated with a number of internalizing disorders and has been a target in cognitive behavioral interventions. Given the overlap between internalizing disorders and alcohol use, exploring IU in the context of drinking behavior provides a promising area of inquiry. Past work identified associations between IU and drinking motives, important predictors of alcohol-related outcomes, with less work examining drinking behavior.

We explored the role of IU and drinking motives on drinking patterns and potentially problematic drinking in a community sample of emerging adults (18–25 years).

Survey data was collected from 551 emerging adults (Mage = 22.26, SD = 2.25; 42.50% cisgender women, 42.28% cisgender men, 9.44% gender diverse; 37.93% white; 16.18% Hispanic/Latine) using an online participant recruitment tool. Participants completed demographic questions, motivations for drinking (DMQ-R), quantity and frequency of alcohol use (DDQ-R), potentially problematic drinking behavior (AUDIT), and attitudes towards uncertainty with a two-factor and single factor operationalization (IUS-27 and IUS-12).

Across models, statistically significant indirect effects were found, such that greater IU was associated with higher coping and enhancement motives and increased average and maximum drinks per week and AUDIT scores.

While consistent with the prior literature, novel relations were found between IU and drinking indices via drinking motives. Future work should explore relations between IU and drinking outcomes longitudinally and whether interventions targeting IU have benefit in the prevention of maladaptive alcohol use.