Drinking to belong: how loneliness fuels alcohol-related consequences

Young adults comprise the group with the highest prevalence of both loneliness and alcohol use, underscoring the importance of developing a deeper insight into this population. Guided by the need to belong and the motivational model of alcohol use, this research evaluates whether students experience alcohol-related problems (e.g. hangovers, missing school or work) in response to a perceived lack of social connection. Specifically, we explore how feelings of loneliness are related to alcohol-related consequences, and whether this is mediated by coping, social, enhancement, and conformity drinking motives over 12 months in a sample of 591 heavy-drinking college students. Results from generalized linear mixed models revealed that, on average and controlling for the amount of alcohol consumed, students who were higher in loneliness reported more alcohol-related consequences (between-person effects) than those who were less lonely. This association was mediated by coping and social drinking motives, suggesting alcohol may have been used both to manage negative affect related to loneliness and to bolster interpersonal connections. Further, alcohol-related consequences were higher when students reported feeling lonelier than their typical levels (within-person effects), an association mediated by coping, social, and conformity motives. These results demonstrate how some students use alcohol as a way to internally cope with or externally manage a potentially thwarted need to belong.