Cultural variation in the relationship between social motives, drinking, and alcohol-related problems

College students consume alcohol based on different motivations, and past research indicates that these drinking motives can differentially predict alcohol-related consequences. However, little is known about how drinking motives and consequences operate in Latinx individuals and other ethnic minority groups. The present study examined social drinking motives and their links to drinking consequences and problematic drinking in a college sample. Participants were 106 Latinx, Asian/Asian American, and European American undergraduates. Social motives were positively and significantly linked to drinking outcomes, but these main effects were qualified by an interaction between social motives and ethnicity on drinking outcomes, such that greater social motives was significantly linked to problematic drinking and drinking consequences for European Americans, but not for Latinx or Asian/Asian American participants. Implications for theory and intervention are discussed.

Role of Pregaming Motives in Accounting for Links Between Maladaptive Personality Traits and Drinking Consequences

College students are at heightened risk of engaging in unhealthy alcohol use that leads to negative consequences (e.g., motor vehicle accidents, poor academic performance). Understanding how individual differences, like maladaptive personality traits, contribute to that risk could improve intervention efforts. A potential pathway through which personality confers risk for consequences is by influencing students’ motivation to drink. In this study of 441 college students, we investigated whether different motivations to pregame, a particularly risky and common drinking practice on college campuses, accounts for links between maladaptive traits and alcohol-related consequences. Results of bivariate analyses showed that all pregaming motives and maladaptive traits (except Detachment) were strongly correlated with negative consequences. In path analytic models that adjusted for shared variance between pregaming motives and between maladaptive traits, results showed that traits had indirect effects on total drinking consequences via individual differences in pregaming motives as well as direct effects that were independent of motives. Specifically, Antagonism, Disinhibition, and Negative Affectivity predicted more drinking consequences via stronger motives to pregame for instrumental reasons over and above the general motivation to pregame whereas Detachment predicted fewer consequences via weaker instrumental pregaming motives. Antagonism and Disinhibition were also associated with more drinking consequences, and Detachment with fewer consequences, over and above pregaming motives and general personality problems. Our study indicates that one way maladaptive personality traits may shape alcohol-related consequences in college students is by associations with their motivations to pregame.

Does depicting consequences of actions in narratives bolsters the formation of propositional beliefs? First results from an experimental approach

We explored (i) whether narratives can influence viewers’ attitudes towards alcohol through evaluative learning and (ii) compared predictions from dual-process and single-process models of evaluative learning.In study 1, participants had to read vignettes, while they were exposed to TV show excerpts in study 2. Both studies (nstudy1 = 147; nstudy2 = 150) followed a 2 (valence: positive vs negative) x 2 (drinking consequences: yes vs no) study design. Implicit associations and propositional beliefs were then measured by an Implicit Association Test (IAT) and a Relational Responding Task (RRT) respectively. A multilevel meta-regression was conducted to provide cumulative evidence for our hypotheses.Our first study did not yield robust significant results in the direction of associative or propositional processes. Conversely, the results of study 2 and meta-analytic findings showed stronger evidence for (i) an effect of exposure to narratives on alcohol-related attitudes and (ii) in favor of propositional models. Simply presenting a stimulus within a valenced content had no effect on the IAT or RRT. We conclude that these results are more in line with inferential propositional models of evaluative learning than with dual-process models.

Drinking Motives, Cultural Orientations, and Alcohol Use among Hispanic College Students at the U.S.-Mexico Border

Hispanic college students at the U.S.-Mexico border are at higher risk for alcohol use and negative drinking consequences, relative to their counterparts in non-border areas. Hispanic students at the U.S.-Mexico border (N=219, Mage =20.14; 71.2% women) completed an online survey. U.S. orientation was negatively associated with alcohol consumption. Enhancement motives predicted alcohol consumption, whereas coping and conformity motives predicted negative drinking-related consequences. Cultural orientations did not moderate the relations between social motives and alcohol use outcomes. Results highlight the need to consider alcohol-related cognition and to better contextualize U.S. and heritage cultural orientations among Hispanics in the U.S.-Mexico areas.

College alcohol beliefs and alcohol use: Testing moderations by cultural orientations and ethnicity

Alcohol is considered an integral part of the college life; students who hold stronger college alcohol beliefs typically consume more alcohol and experience more negative drinking consequences. Asian Americans are increasingly at risk for hazardous alcohol use, yet little research has focused on whether college alcohol beliefs are conceptualized similarly in this group and whether individuals’ cultural orientations moderate the relations between college alcohol beliefs and alcohol involvement. Asian American (N = 439; Mage = 22.77, 42.6% women) and Euro American (N = 161; Mage = 21.04; 41.6% women) undergraduate students were recruited to test measurement invariance of the College Life Alcohol Salience Scale (CLASS) and the Stephenson Multigroup Acculturation Scale (SMAS). We examined the relations between college alcohol beliefs and alcohol involvement, and the degree to which cultural orientations and ethnicity moderated these relations. Scores from a 14-item CLASS and a 26-item SMAS demonstrated scalar invariance across Asian and Euro American groups. Bivariate correlations showed robust associations between college alcohol beliefs and alcohol involvement. Among Asian and Euro Americans who were not immersed in their ethnic heritage society, students were at greater odds of being a drinker when they endorsed stronger college alcohol beliefs, and drinkers consumed more alcohol when they endorsed lower college alcohol beliefs. Interventions aimed to prevent alcohol use and misuse can assess and target students’ college alcohol beliefs and promote greater connectedness to their ethnic heritage cultures.