Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 16, 2026

The Motivation for Alcohol Reward: Predictors of Progressive-Ratio Intravenous Alcohol Self-Administration in Humans
Published on: April 28, 2022
Why do young people drink? A review of drinking motives
Emmanuel Kuntsche1, Ronald Knibbe, Gerhard Gmel
1Research Department, Swiss Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Drug Problems (SIPA), PO Box 870, 1001 Lausanne, Switzerland. ekuntsche@sfa-ispa.ch
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.
More Related Videos
08:45Modeling Alcohol Consumption in Rodents Using Two-Bottle Choice Home Cage Drinking and Microstructural Analysis
Published on: November 8, 2024
08:05A Prediction Error-driven Retrieval Procedure for Destabilizing and Rewriting Maladaptive Reward Memories in Hazardous Drinkers
Published on: January 5, 2018
Related Concept Videos
Self-Presentation: Self-Monitoring and Self-Handicapping
Revisionist Views of Adolescent and Adult Cognition
Self-Evaluation: Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification
Primary Motives: Hunger and Thirst
Hunger arises when the brain detects changes in the body's nutrient levels, including glucose, lipids, amino acids, and hormones such as ghrelin and leptin. The hypothalamus plays a central role in hunger regulation. The lateral hypothalamus acts...
Secondary Motives: Affiliation Motivation and Aggression Motivation
Influence of Parents and Peers on Identity
Parental Influence on Identity Development
Parents serve as primary guides and managers in an adolescent's life, offering support instrumental in decision-making and personal growth. This guiding role...