Examining the Role of Drinking Motives in College Student Alcohol Use and Problems

A motivational model of alcohol involvement (M. L. Cooper, M. R. Frone, M. Russell, & P. Mudar, 1995) was replicated and extended by incorporating social antecedents and motives and by testing this model cross-sectionally and longitudinally in a sample of college students. Participants (N = 388) completed a questionnaire battery assessing alcohol use and problems, alcohol expectancies, sensation seeking, negative affect, social influences, and drinking motives. Associations among psychosocial antecedents, drinking motives, and alcohol involvement differed from those found by M. L. Cooper et al. (1995). These findings point to the importance of social influences and of positive reinforcement motives but not to the centrality of drinking motives in this population.