Negative consequences of intercollegiate athlete drinking: the role of drinking motives.
OBJECTIVE
Intercollegiate athletes consume more alcohol and experience more negative alcohol-related consequences than nonathletes. The purpose of this study was to determine if drinking motives accounted for variability among intercollegiate athletes in experiencing negative alcohol-related consequences, and to analyze how the strength and patterns of the relationship between individual drinking motives and negative consequences varied among the different consequences.


METHODS
Self-report data were analyzed on 206 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I athletes (55% female), selected from a large, midwestern university, who reported drinking alcohol in the past year. Participants completed the Drinking Motives Measure and the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey.


RESULTS
Drinking motives accounted for variability in experiencing negative alcohol-related consequences. Drinking for coping reasons displayed the strongest relationship with most of the negative consequences, but for some consequences social and enhancement motives displayed relationships with the consequences that were either similar to or stronger than those of the coping motives.


CONCLUSIONS
This research demonstrated that drinking motives in general are useful predictors of negative alcohol-related consequences among a yet unstudied population, intercollegiate athletes. The findings suggest that drinking for negatively reinforcing reasons (i.e., coping motives) is generally the strongest motivational predictor of alcohol-related consequences, although the relative strength of individual motives in predicting consequences can vary depending upon the content of an individual consequence.
Martens
Matthew P
MP
Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, ED220 University at Albany, State University of New York, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, New York 12222, USA. mmartens@uamail.albany.edu
Cox
Richard H
RH
Beck
Niels C
NC
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D013177:Sports / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014495:Universities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*