Drinking Motives Among 15-16-Year-Old School-Going Students in 16 European Countries

Investigating drinking motives among minors across various countries is crucial for understanding the broader social context of alcohol consumption. Thus, this study aimed to examine the differences and similarities in drinking motives among 15-16-year-old adolescents who consume alcohol across 16 European countries.

The data were obtained from the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs database. The analysis focused on 15-16-year-old school-going students across 16 European countries (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, and Spain). The students were presented with a series of questions pertaining to drinking motives, aimed at elucidating the reasons behind their alcohol consumption within the past 12 months.

A total of 52,141 students participated, with 75.2% reporting lifetime alcohol consumption and 65.8% reporting alcohol consumption in the past year. Among those who drank in the past year (n = 34,295), 3 distinct drinking motive factor groups were identified: enhancement and social motives, coping motives, and conformity motives. Enhancement and social motives were most prevalent across all countries, followed by coping motives, with conformity motives less common.

This largest drinking motive study, conducted to date, examined drinking motives among 15-16-year-old students across 16 European countries. There is a significant positive correlation between alcohol intoxication prevalence and mean score on enhancement and social motives at an aggregate level, which suggests a stronger presence of enhancement and social motives in cultures with a more intoxication-oriented drinking pattern.