Beer! How is drinking effecting college life?

                 Abby L. Goldstein and Gordon L. Flett’s Personality, Alcohol Use, and Drinking Motives is a look into a comparison of independent and combined internal drinking motives groups. Published in March 2009 by Behavior Modification, the study hypothesizes that coping motivated drinkers were more likely to binge drink and thus have more alcohol related problems. This is compared to the other groups in the study: enhancement motivated and noninternally motivated drinkers. However, the alcohol use was predicted to remain constant between those who are motivated to drink for mood enhancement verse those who drink for coping reasons.
            This study was clearly geared towards college students. The introduction points out that in previous studies, it had been deduced that 40% of college students binge drink at least once every two weeks. It makes sense then that all 230 participants of the study were first year university students. It is important to note that the researchers chose only participants who reported some alcohol consumption in the past year. In essence, the researchers want individuals who they know will cater to their results. They are less concerned with who drinks but why they choose to do so.  
            Moving forward, the researchers had several measures they had in mind to test. Drinking motives for one were assessed using four 5 item subscales. The scales went as follows: enhancement, coping, social, and conformity. From this point, the participants were to rate the frequency (on a scale of 1 to 5) on the reasoning for their consumption. Other areas they aimed to test were anxiety sensitivity, neuroticism, sensation seeking, and positive/negative affect among others. It is important that the researchers chose to include alcohol problems as a measure. The questionnaire was aimed to assess if the participant has had experience with alcohol problems in the past 12 months. Failure to include such a test would serve as a serious outlier as the researchers would have no way of knowing if they are dealing with alcoholics or occasional weekend binge drinkers.
            From here the researchers describe the process of establishing a procedure for the tests. The participants were given two questionnaires; one during the first six weeks of the semester and the second three months later.  These questionnaires were filled with the aforementioned tests and measures. With all data collected, it was time to look at the results.
            The researchers determined that noninternally motivated consumers ultimately consumed less alcohol when they drank than their counterparts who drank to cope, enhance, or both. In addition these noninternally motivated drinkers actually drank less often in general than their counterparts. Those who drink for internal reasons were discovered to binge drink far more often and drink more when they do. In addition, those who drink to cope reported more drinking consequences than the noninternal drinkers.
            The study not only supports the hypothesis but seems fairly obvious. Those who drink because they believe it is going to help them internally some way clearly have problems that go far beyond drinking. These are individuals that are usually insecure about themselves. It also makes sense that these individuals, along with those who drink to cope, face more alcohol related incidents. These people are drinking to avoid their pain, to drown their sorrow. You cannot expect them to know when enough is enough. Instead they drink and drink until they cannot feel.  If you were to survey most college students it would be apparent that most drink for enhancement and to have fun. They do not have deep set internal problems, but rather drink to fit in and have a good time.