An examination of the extent to which drinking motives and problem alcohol consumption vary as a function of deprivation, gender and age

Abstract

Introduction. Existing research points to a link between socioeconomic factors, alcohol consumption and harms, while another body of work documents the importance of varying motivations to drink in shaping alcohol behaviours. Yet, little is currently known about the extent to which alcohol consumption may be differentially associated with drinking motives as a function of deprivation, gender and age. Methods. Cross-sectional analysis of data from a UK sample aged between 18 and 75 years (n = 1639; 51% male, Mage 47.74, SD 14.66). Structural equation modelling, using clustering to account for the multi-level nature of the data set, was carried out to assesses the relationships between deprivation (Index of Multiple Deprivation), occupation, age, gender and problem alcohol consumption (Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test) and social, conformity, enhancement and coping drinking motives. Results. Coping, enhancement and conformity, but not social, motives were associated with problem alcohol consumption. Drinking motives were stronger predictors of problem consumption than gender and age, with motives tending to be endorsed more strongly by younger and male respondents. Responses from participants with working-class occupations tended to be characterised by elevated endorsements of coping motives. Discussion and Conclusion. Drinking motives are stronger predictors of problem alcohol consumption than socio-demographic variables although these factors exert influences on people's motives to drink. [Heim D, Monk RL, Qureshi AW. An examination of the extent to which drinking motives and problem alcohol consumption vary as a function of deprivation, gender and age.

UK alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of drinking motives, employment and subjective mental health

“…Indeed, this research links theoretically with the self-medication hypothesis [ 24 ] that posits that alcohol is used as a means of improving low mood and/or ameliorating negative affective state or mental/physical states (although see [ 25 ], which suggests that a model of affect intensity regulation may be a more advantageous way of understanding the alcohol-mood nexus, rather than theorising about mood valence). It also aligns with pre-COVID research by [ 26 ] indicating that coping, enhancement, and conformity, but not social, motives were associated with problem alcohol consumption in the UK. This study also found that coping motives in people with working class backgrounds were related to elevated alcohol consumption.…”

“…The initial model had paths from age, gender and social grade to all three components of life disruption [Employment location, Subjective mental health, Employment security], and paths from these predicting each of the drinking motives, which in turn predicted alcohol consumption (see S1 Table in S1 File ). Covariances were also present between all drinking motives (as per [ 26 ]).…”

“…In contrast, fewer employment security concerns were indirectly associated with lower consumption via the lowering of conformity motives. In short, the current analyses contribute to the existing body of work highlighting the potentially significant role of coping motives when seeking to understand patterns of drinking more generally [ 26 ], as well as during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 21 ].…”

“…Second, concerns regarding the veracity of self-report measures [ 45 , 46 ] should be noted in the context of our reliance on participant response data with possible biases due to shared method variance. Specifically, it should be acknowledged that it is possible that there may be some social-desirable responding in participants’ accounts of their social grade and future research may benefit from the use of other indices to obtain a more objective assessment (e.g., Index of Multiple Deprivation recorded based on each individual’s local Super Output Area [ 26 ]. Furthermore, the measure of mental health and well-being was derived from a single-item assessment (“How much of an impact do you think that the pandemic has had on your mental health and wellbeing?”), meaning that this is a self-reported subjective account of mental health.…”