Situational and respondent-level motives for drinking and alcohol-related aggression: a multilevel analysis of drinking events in a sample of Canadian university students.
Situational drinking motives (i.e., motives specific to the drinking situation) as well as respondent-level drinking motives (i.e., usual drinking motives across drinking situations) were examined in terms of their relations with aggression experienced by university students. Secondary, multi-level analyses were conducted on the Canadian Campus Survey (CCS), a national survey of 40 Canadian universities conducted between March 1 and April 30, 2004 (N=6,282). For their three most recent drinking events, students reported their motive for drinking (i.e., situational motive) and whether they had an argument/fight. Respondent-level drinking motives were computed by averaging motives across drinking events. Drinking to cope at the situational-level increased the likelihood of aggression. Respondent-level enhancement motives also increased the risk of aggression. Aesthetic motives were important at both situational and respondent levels decreasing the risk for alcohol-related aggression. Gender did not moderate these relations. These results suggest that prevention programming might benefit from a focus on altering drinking motives, or their underlying causes, in order to reduce alcohol-related aggression among young adults.
Mihic
Ljiljana
L
Department of Psychology, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia. ljiljanamihic@hotmail.com
Wells
Samantha
S
Graham
Kathryn
K
Tremblay
Paul F
PF
Demers
Andrée
A
D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D055361:Multilevel Analysis; D012931:Social Environment; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult