Alcohol consumption continues to be a public health concern across university campuses. While there are numerous reasons that college students drink alcohol, drinking to cope with negative feelings is a popular motive. Research has shown a multitude of consequences that drinking to cope can have on college students such as increased alcohol consumption, impaired judgment, and a lack of control in one’s drinking resulting in further deleterious outcomes. Prior research studies have examined one’s willingness to experience consequences from drinking. However, willingness to change drinking to cope had yet to be studied. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how willing college students are to change their behavior of drinking to cope in relation to 1) drinking motives and 2) the quantity and frequency to which they drink. Using an anonymous, online survey housed in Qualtrics, data was collected on college students attending a Midwest, mid-sized university through email invitations. Items on the survey were adapted from the Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised Scale by Lynn Cooper (1994). The expected outcome was that those who drink to cope would be less willing to alter their drinking habits as they may feel that drinking is necessary to cope with their negative mood states. However, the opposite was found to be true. Those who reported greater levels of drinking to cope were more willing to change their drinking habits. Additionally, alcohol quantity and frequency were not associated with one’s willingness to change their alcohol use when coping with negative feelings. The aim of this research study was to uncover college students’ extent of willingness to change in relation to drinking motives so that these findings could be used in alcohol intervention programs at universities to better help students alter their drinking to cope behaviors.
Author: Melissa Elias
Advisor: Rose Marie Ward, Kinesiology
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