Drinking motives and links to alcohol use in 13 European countries.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to test the structure and endorsement of drinking motives and their links to alcohol use among 11- to 19-year-olds from 13 European countries.


METHODS
Confirmatory factor analysis, latent growth curves, and multiple regression models were conducted, based on a sample of 33,813 alcohol-using students from Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Wales who completed the Drinking Motives Questionnaire Revised Short Form (DMQ-R SF).


RESULTS
The findings confirmed the hypothesized fourdimensional factor structure. Social motives for drinking were most frequently indicated, followed by enhancement, coping, and conformity motives, in that order, in all age groups in all countries except Finland. This rank order was clearest among older adolescents and those from northern European countries. The results confirmed that, across countries, social motives were strongly positively related to drinking frequency, enhancement motives were strongly positively related to frequency of drunkenness, and conformity motives were negatively related to both alcohol outcomes. Against our expectations, social motives were more closely related to drunkenness than were coping motives, particularly among younger adolescents.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings reveal striking cross-cultural consistency. Health promotion efforts that are based on, or incorporate, drinking motives are likely to be applicable across Europe. As social motives were particularly closely linked to drunkenness among young adolescents, measures to impede the modeling of alcohol use and skills to resist peer pressure are particularly important in this age group.
Addiction Switzerland, Research Institute, Lausanne, Switzerland, Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Emmanuel
E
Kuntsche
Health Promotion Research Centre, School of Health Sciences, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.
Saoirse Nic
SN
Gabhainn
Social Research and Information Division, Welsh Government, Cardiff, United Kingdom.
Chris
C
Roberts
Addiction Switzerland, Research Institute, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Béat
B
Windlin
Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Italy.
Alessio
A
Vieno
National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Pernille
P
Bendtsen
Department of Public Health, Ghent University, Belgium.
Anne
A
Hublet
Department of Health Sciences, Research Centre for Health Promotion, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
Jorma
J
Tynjälä
Department of Health Sciences, Research Centre for Health Promotion, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
Raili
R
Välimaa
Health Psychology Unit, Institute of Public Health, Medical Faculty, PJ Safarik University, Kosice, Slovak Republic.
Zuzana
Z
Dankulincová
Chronic Disease Department, National Institute for Health Development, Tallinn, Estonia.
Katrin
K
Aasvee
Department of Clinical Psychology and Addiction, Institute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
Zsolt
Z
Demetrovics
Department of Clinical Psychology and Addiction, Institute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
Judit
J
Farkas
Child and Adolescent Health Research Unit (CAHRU), School of Medicine, University of St. Andrews, United Kingdom.
Winfried
W
van der Sluijs
Department of International Health, Lisbon University, Portugal.
Margarida Gaspar
MG
de Matos
Department of Child and Adolescent Health, Institute of Mother and Child, Warsaw, Poland.
Joanna
J
Mazur
Addiction Switzerland, Research Institute, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Matthias
M
Wicki
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D005060:Europe / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D057566:Self Report; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult