Drinking Motives, Hazardous Alcohol Consumption and Self-Perceived Stress across Academic Years

Aim: To examine the relationships between students’ drinking motives, self-perceived stress and alcohol consumption; studied in the context of risk of alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse across differing academic years in tertiary education. Methods: The sample included 89 students. Students completed a Microsoft forms questionnaire, including Alcohol Use Dependency Identification Test (AUDIT), Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised (DMQR) Perceived-Stress Scale (PSS), as well as a self-designed questionnaire to collect demographic data. Results: Risky or harmful alcohol use was found in 79.8% of students in the past month. Coping motives had the strongest relationship to stress out of the other drinking motives. Different drinking motives were not evident across different groups of first, in-between and final year students. Conclusion: Lack of differences in drinking motives between college years may indicate that the groups analysed used alcohol as a coping strategy rather than any other motives. It is critical to develop an environment for students that promotes healthy stress coping mechanisms and early intervention