The Interactive Effects of Drinking Motives, Age, and Self-Criticism in Predicting Hazardous Drinking

Individuals who disclose hazardous drinking often report strong motives to drink, which may occur to modulate views of the self. Investigating self-criticism tendencies in models of drinking motives may help explain who is more susceptible to drinking for internal or external reasons. As much of the research on drinking motives and alcohol use is conducted in young adult or college student samples, studying these relations in a wider age range is clearly needed.

The current study examined the interactive relationship between drinking motives (internal: coping, enhancement; external: social, conformity), levels of self-criticism (internalized, comparative), and age to predict hazardous drinking.

Participants (N = 427, Mage = 34.16, 54.8% female) who endorsed drinking within the last year completed an online study assessing these constructs.

Results indicated internalized self-criticism and drinking to cope interacted to predict hazardous drinking for middle-aged adults. However, comparative self-criticism and conformity motives interacted to predict greater hazardous drinking for younger-aged adults. In addition, both social and conformity motives predicted less hazardous drinking for middle-aged adults high in comparative self-criticism.

Interventions that target alcohol use could minimize coping motivations to drink while targeting comparative self-criticism in the context of social, and conformity motives.