Elsevier

Clinical Psychology Review

Volume 25, Issue 7, November 2005, Pages 841-861
Clinical Psychology Review

Why do young people drink? A review of drinking motives

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2005.06.002Get rights and content

Abstract

This article reviews evidence of adolescent and young adult drinking motives and their relation to possible consequences over the last 15 years. To this end, a computer-assisted search of relevant articles was conducted. Results revealed that most young people reported drinking for social motives, some indicated enhancement motives, and only a few reported coping motives. Social motives appear to be associated with moderate alcohol use, enhancement with heavy drinking, and coping motives with alcohol-related problems. However, an enormous heterogeneity was found in terms of how motives were measured: 10 to 40 items were grouped into between 2 and 10 dimensions and sometimes the same items occurred under different dimensions. Future studies should therefore use well-defined, theoretically based, homogenous instruments to disentangle cultural from measurement differences across surveys.

Introduction

Excessive alcohol use has been shown to be associated with various adverse consequences and health problems such as fatal and non-fatal injuries, blackouts, suicide attempts, unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, academic failure, and violence (see Gmel et al., 2003, Hingson et al., 2002, Perkins, 2002, for reviews). Since in most cases initiation into alcohol use (e.g. Johnston, O'Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2004) and excessive drinking (e.g. Gmel et al., 2003, Tucker et al., 2003) occur in adolescence it is crucial to establish prevention efforts in this life period or even before (e.g. Hawks et al., 2002, James et al., 1996). However, for successful efforts to limit premature and excessive drinking among adolescents it is necessary to understand the antecedents and etiology of drinking behavior. In this regard, the motivation for engaging in drinking is one important aspect. Theorists regard drinking motives as the final common pathway to its use, i.e. the gateway through which more distal influences are mediated (Cooper, 1994, Cox & Klinger, 1988). Indeed, empirical research demonstrates, for example, that drinking motives are more closely associated with alcohol use than alcohol expectancies (Cronin, 1997). Although drinking motives are associated with drinking in different situational contexts, they explain a substantial amount of variance in alcohol use in addition to situational factors such as drinking circumstance, location, day of the week, group size, type of relationship, local norms and residence (Kairouz, Gliksman, Demers, & Adlaf, 2002).

The concept of drinking motives is based on the assumption that people drink in order to attain certain valued outcomes (Cooper, 1994, Cox & Klinger, 1988). It also assumes that drinking behavior is motivated by different needs or serves different functions, and that specific drinking motives are associated with a unique pattern of precursors and consequences. Heavy drinking, for example, is particularly likely among people who experience stress and drink for coping motives, as well as those whose friends drink heavily and who drink for social motives themselves (Abbey, Smith, & Scott, 1993). In other words, drinking motives or reasons represent a subjectively derived decisional framework for alcohol use based on personal experience, situation and expectancies (Carpenter & Hasin, 1998b, Cox & Klinger, 1988).

Expectancies, on the other hand, are defined as beliefs about the positive or negative behavioral, emotional and cognitive effects of alcohol intake (Baer, 2002, Quigley & Marlatt, 1996). Wiers, Hoogeveen, Sergeant, and Gunning (1997) defined expectancies as a “probability held by the individual that a particular reinforcement will occur as a function of a specific behavior”. It appears that to hold a particular expectancy is a commensurate condition of drinking because an individual must have a particular expectancy before alcohol will be consumed to achieve the desired effect, but that he or she will not necessarily drink to achieve a desired effect simply because the corresponding expectancy is endorsed (Cooper, 1994). In contrast, as described in the motivational model of alcohol use (Cox & Klinger, 1988, Cox & Klinger, 1990), to have a particular motive or reason is a necessary condition for drinking, conceptualized by the final decision to drink or not to drink.

The motivational model assumes that a person makes a decision about whether or not he or she will consume alcohol. The decision to drink is a combination of emotional and rational processes in that the decision is made on the basis of the affective change that the person expects to achieve by drinking compared with not drinking. The affective change can either be related to the direct chemical effects of alcohol, e.g. tension reduction or mood enhancement, or the indirect effects, such as peer acceptance. In fact, a person does not have to be aware of either having made a decision to drink or the factors affecting this decision. In most cases, decisions about drinking are even unconscious and automatized.

According to the model, the decision to drink is embedded in historical and current factors, expected effects, and drinking motives (Fig. 1). Historical factors relate to biochemical reactivity to alcohol (e.g. the genetic disposition to react positively or negatively to alcohol), personality characteristics (e.g. non-conformity, impulsivity, extraversion, sensation seeking, or self-derogation), socio-cultural and environmental factors (e.g. culture-specific drinking styles), and past reinforcement from drinking. Current factors are associated with quality of life in terms of the quantity and quality of prevailing positive and negative incentives for drinking and situational factors (e.g. if alcohol is available or being exposed to people who drink).

Historical, current, situational, and cognitive factors are the basis for individual expectancies both in terms of the chemical effects of alcohol intake, e.g. mood enhancement, and the non-chemical effects, e.g. to celebrate with friends or to enjoy meals. The result of all expected effects (labeled valence in the motivational model) can either be positive (to enhance positive moods) or negative (to avoid or attenuate negative experiences). The source of these expected effects can further be either internal (regarding the personal affective change) or external (regarding the individual social environment). Accordingly, four categories of drinking motives emerge as final antecedents of drinking behavior: drinking to enhance positive mood or well-being (enhancement: positive, internal), to obtain social rewards (social: positive, external), to attenuate negative emotions (coping: negative, internal), and to avoid social rejection (conformity: negative, external). By adopting a specific reason for drinking the decision for engaging in alcohol consumption is made. For example, people decide to drink because it gives them a pleasant feeling or because it helps them when depressed or nervous.

Although there is a long tradition of research (e.g. Edwards et al., 1973, Jung, 1977, Riley et al., 1948) and profound theoretical considerations (e.g. Cooper, 1994, Cox & Klinger, 1988, Cox & Klinger, 1990), no systematic attempt has been made to summarize recent evidence on drinking motives. The aim of this paper is to review the recent empirical research on adolescents' and young adults' drinking motives because if efforts to limit premature and excessive drinking are to succeed, research on these age groups is particularly important. More specifically, the paper concentrates on formal aspects of drinking motives (issues of definition, measurement and classification), and on the possible consequences (alcohol use, related problems, and other problem behaviors).

Section snippets

Methods

A computer-assisted literature search was conducted using the keywords “reason” or “reasons” or “motive” or “motives” or “motivation” and “alcohol” or “drinking” or “drunk” or “drunkenness” and “adolescents” or “adolescence” or “juvenile” or “young people”. “Current Contents”, “ERIC Database”, “ETOH“, “Medline“, “PsychInfo“, “Sociological Abstracts”, and “Swetsnet“ were used as databases, together with the internal library system of the Swiss Institute for Prevention of Alcohol and Drug

Motives and reasons—different terms, same meaning?

In the literature, the terms “drinking motives” and “reasons for drinking” are used interchangeably (Baer, 2002, Stewart & Chambers, 2000, Stewart & Devine, 2000). In English dictionaries (e.g. Cambridge University, 2001, Oxford University, 2001), motives appear to be more broadly defined than reasons, which provide explanations or judgments for events based on practical facts. Similarly, in psychology, reasons are defined as an intellectual process involved in considering the totality of a

Discussion

To summarize, most young people reported drinking for social motives, some indicated enhancement motives and only a few reported coping motives. Concerning potential outcomes, social motives appear to be associated with moderate alcohol use, enhancement with heavy drinking and coping motives with alcohol-related problems.

There are, however, some considerable gaps in the research on drinking motives among young people. Apart from the definition-related problems, different theoretically and

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