Measuring drinking motives in undergraduates: an exploration of the Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised in Swedish students

Abstract

BackgroundAlcohol consumption is generally high among undergraduate students and may lead to adverse consequences. Drinking motives play a vital role in the development of alcohol-related problems. The Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised (DMQ-R) and the short form of DMQ-R, DMQ-R SF, are widely used tools to identify drinking motives. Still, there is a need for further exploration of the instruments in different cultures and settings. The aims of this study were 1) to explore the four-factor structure of the DMQ-R and DMQ-R SF in Swedish undergraduate students 2) to investigate if extracting the SF responses from the DMQ-R is equivalent to the factor structure of the DMQ-R SF 3) to study the association between drinking motives and hazardous drinking.MethodsData were collected among 536 Swedish undergraduate students and were analyzed by confirmatory factor analyses, Mann-Whitney, chi-square tests and logistic regressions.ResultsWe could confirm the four-dimensional structure of both versions of the DMQ. There was a similar (or in fact even slightly better) model fit of the short form and when drawing the SF items. Emotionally oriented motives (enhancement and coping), together with social motives, were strongly associated with hazardous or harmful drinking levels, whereas conformity motives were not. The enhancement motive showed the highest group mean value and was also the most common main motive. Students with hazardous drinking endorsed their motives more strongly than those without hazardous drinking, which is a finding worthy of further investigation.ConclusionsThe DMQ-R SF is suitable and preferable for Swedish student populations and extracting the SF responses from the DMQ-R is equivalent to the factor structure of the DMQ-R SF. In future research, effects of including the DMQ-R SF in preventive strategies and in interventions with risk drinking students would be of particular interest.

Drinking Behavior, Taste Preferences and Special Beer Perception among Romanian University Students: A Qualitative Assessment Research

“…Adolescents who started to drink at a very young age (12-16 years) were more likely to have had a family member with alcohol problems (Table 3). When treating the age-intervals as ranked data we also observed a statistical significance (p < 0.001) with subjects having an alcoholic family member having an earlier age of first drink (alcoholic family members median 14-16 (12)(13)(14)(16)(17)(18); no alcoholic family members median 16-18 (14-16, 16-18)). Additionally, there was a statistically significant interaction between gender and the presence of alcoholic family members on the age of first alcohol use (p < 0.01, Phi and Cramer's V coefficients equals 0.15 for females and p < 0.05, Phi and Cramer's V coefficients equals 0.13 for males) indicating a weak association.…”

“…Global data are worrying, as 50–70% of 15-year-old students use alcohol, with nearly no difference between male and female [ 17 ]. It is suggested that drinking motives in young age may predict drinking patterns later in life [ 18 ]. The study conducted by Hingson et al emphasizes the need to counsel adolescents about alcohol use and to implement efficient policies that delay AC [ 19 ].…”

Drinking motives and their associations with alcohol use among adolescents in Sweden

“…Similar to previous results showing an association with higher typical quantity consumed per drinking occasion for coping-depression motives but not for coping-anxiety motives ( Grant et al, 2007 ), we found that the two coping motives differed in their link with both heavy drinking frequency and drinking frequency. Previous Swedish studies have also identified links between coping motives and alcohol outcomes ( Comasco et al, 2010 ; Nehlin & Oster, 2019 ). Other studies that have used the five-factor model ( Mezquita, 2016 ) have, however, not found a link to drinking between any of the two coping motives dimensions.…”

“…The Swedish adult population has been shown to primarily drink for enhancement and social motives, and less for coping and conformity motives, than the average among European countries ( RARHA, 2016 ; The Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs, 2018a ). A study of undergraduate students in Sweden showed that social and enhancement motives were most common, and, along with coping motives, were also linked to hazardous drinking ( Nehlin & Oster, 2019 ).…”

Clusters of older adults with and without experience of alcohol-related harms based on affective motivations for drinking

“…Drinking motivations are regarded as the most proximal predictors of both the amount and frequency of drinking, and of alcohol-related problems ( Cooper et al, 1992 ; Cooper et al, 1995 ; Kuntsche et al, 2007 ; Kuntsche et al, 2010 ). In addition, in comparison to other drinking behaviour indices, drinking motives appear to out-perform both drinking amount and/or frequency ( Brennan & Moos, 1997 ; Cooper et al, 1992 ; Cooper et al, 1995 ; Ertl et al, 2018 ; Gilson et al, 2013 ), and alcohol expectancies ( Cronin, 1997 ; Kuntsche et al, 2007 ; Kuntsche et al, 2010 ; Neighbors et al, 2007 ) in the prediction of drinking behaviour and alcohol-related problems.…”