Assessment, Development, and Validation

The college student population tends to engage in excessive alcohol use that contrib-utes to a variety of negative consequences, which has become a growing public health concern. At least 85 % of college students have tried alcohol and more than 40 % report binge drinking (i.e., +5 drinks for males and +4 drinks for females) in the preceding 2 weeks (Johnston, O’Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2008; Weschler et al., 2002). Students who engage in such drinking prac-tices are at risk for negative consequences such as assault, sexual assault, injury, and death (Hingson, Zha, & Weitzman, 2009; Wechsler et al., 2002). The use of reliable assessments in helping students to reduce alcohol consumption and negative consequences related to alcohol use is important for counselors, prevention spe-cialists, and researchers. Understanding the underlying motives for drinking can establish a more holistic conceptualization of the stu-dent’s drinking and can influence intervention techniques. For example, counseling strategies may differ for a student primarily endorsing drinking motives related to coping (e.g., “To forget my problems”) versus a student pri-marily endorsing drinking motives related to social factors (e.g., “To enjoy a party”). The former would likely benefit from counseling focused on developing alternative coping strategies, whereas the latter would benefit from an approach focusing on ways to enhance social experiences without engaging in exces-sive drinking. Therefore, identifying and accurately measuring different types of drink-ing motives has important implications for both clinical and research efforts in the fiel