Differences in Drinking Motives Among Social and Binge Drinkers in Relation to Maturing Out: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Pilot Study

Abstract

Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is associated with numerous interpersonal, mental, and health related consequences that can ultimately result in mortality. Past research suggests drinking motives, particularly drinking to cope, can act as maintenance factors for harmful alcohol consumption. The current study aims to examine drinking motives in real time using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) in a sample of both social and binge drinkers (SD and BD) who vary in stages of adulthood to better understand how specific drinking motives impact hazardous alcohol use patterns across a 30-day period. We hypothesized that higher endorsement of coping motives would emerge among BD and be positively associated with AUDIT scores within the entire sample, BD, and SD. We also hypothesized that enhancement motives among BD would be associated with the highest level of alcohol consumption. Contrary to our hypotheses, enhancement motives were positively associated with AUDIT total scores among the entire sample and alcohol consumption among the entire sample and SD. Among BD, drinking out of boredom, out of habit, and to relax as part of our exploratory motives were associated with AUDIT total scores. Within SD, drinking to relax and out of boredom were positively associated with alcohol consumption while drinking out of habit was negatively associated with alcohol consumption. Overall, the current study uses nuanced EMA methodology to further demonstrate that drinking motives are an important variable in relation to risky drinking patterns and should continue to be studied in alcohol use pathology across research and clinical settings.