Enhancing prediction of adolescents' alcohol use frequency and consequences with the number and types of adolescents' reasons for drinking

Previous research indicates that adolescents' reasons for drinking alcohol predict adolescents' alcohol use. Perceived risk of harm, peer approval, and parental approval of use are well-established predictors of adolescent alcohol use. This exploratory study assessed the ability of number of reasons for drinking to predict variation in the frequency of alcohol use (drinking frequency) and number of consequences of alcohol use (consequences) beyond that explained by well-established predictors. High school students with any lifetime alcohol use (n=37,673), selected from a large convenience sample in a mid-western state, responded to alcohol-related items in a school-based survey. Predictors included number of reasons for drinking alcohol and a latent variable combining the well-established predictors named above. Latent dependent variables were drinking frequency and consequences. Regression analyses confirmed the significance of predictors. Structural Equation Modeling produced a path model with acceptable fit (RMSEA=.06, NNFI=.99, IFI=.99, CFI=.99). Based on their similarity to reasons described in previous research, reasons for drinking in our instrument were assigned to a typology of motives (common underlying dimensions of reasons): experiential, conformity, social, coping, enhancement, and an additional category of coping reasons associated with the highest frequency of drinking. Relationships between drinking frequency and these motives were explored. Alternate path models using number of motives instead of number of reasons also demonstrated acceptable fit. More frequent drinkers had more reasons and more motives. The results suggest that both number of reasons and number of motives predict variation in drinking frequency and consequences beyond that explained by well-established predictors.