the mediating role of impulsivity and drinking motives on alcohol use

Role of impulsivity and drinking motives on alcohol use 1

Running head: Role of impulsivity and drinking motives on alcohol use

Is your impulsive personality causing you to drink more? The mediating

role of impulsivity and drinking motives on alcohol use

Alyssa Nicholas

11705334

Supervised by Dr Daria Kuss

Date of submission: May, 2014

Word count: 7,376

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of

Bsc(hons) Psychology of Birmingham City University

AUTHOR DECLARATION


I, Alyssa Nicholas, declare that the dissertation entitled “Is your impulsive

personality causing you to drink more? The mediating role of impulsivity and drinking

motives on alcohol use” and the work presented in this dissertation are both my own, and

have been generated by me as the result of my own original research.

I confirm that:

1. This work was done wholly while in candidature for a research degree at this University.

2. Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the

exception of such quotations, this dissertation is entirely my own work.

3. I have acknowledged all main sources of help.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to take the time to thank the following people who have help and

supported me throughout this dissertation.

Firstly I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Daria Kuss for her support and

expert knowledge and time, encouragement and patience.

Secondly I would like to thank Birmingham City University for giving me this

opportunity to expand my knowledge and provide me with great opportunities.

Thirdly, I would like to thank my friends, who have been there to encourage

and motivate me throughout the course, and my university friends who have made my

time at university so enjoyable.

Last but not least I would like to thank my family: my dad, Evan, my nan and

grandad, brother and Milo, but especially my mom for always supporting me and

encouraging me throughout these three years at university and throughout my life, she

is an inspiration to me and I love her lots.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………………….. 1

ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION………………………………………………....….. 2

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................3

A. Prevalence and health risks of alcohol use…………………….……...3

B. Impulsivity…...…………………….………………………………... 4

C. Impulsivity and alcohol use…………………………………….…… 5

D. Drinking motives…………………………………..……………...…..7

E. Impulsivity, drinking motives and alcohol use…………………….... 9

F. Drinking motives, alcohol use and older adults………………..…….10

G. Research hypothesis…………………………..……………………...12

CHAPTER II. METHOD………………………………..…………………………….. 13

A. Participants………………………………………………..………... 13

B. Design and procedure……………………………………..………... 13

C. Measures…………………………………………………..………... 14

1. Alcohol use…………………………………………..

………… 14

2. Impulsive behaviour………………………………….

………... 15

3. Drinking motives……………………………………….

……… 16

D. Statistical analysis……………………...………………….………... 16

CHAPTER III. RESULTS……………………………………………….…………….. 18

A. Descriptive statistics………………………………..………………. 18

B. Test of correlation…………………………………..……...……..… 19

C. Multiple regression………………………………...………………... 19

CHAPTER IV. DISCUSSION………………………………………...………………... 20

REFERENCES………………………………………………………...………………... 28


APPENDICES…………………………………………………...…………………….... 37


ABSTRACT

Alcohol use is a growing concern, especially in western societies where

there is a binge drinking culture seen in adolescence, as it can lead to alcohol related

problems later in life. Impulsive behaviours and an individual’s drinking motives have

shown to mediate alcohol consumption in both adolescence and older adults. Method: 72

participants (33% undergraduate students, 64% females, 36% males) aged between 18-73

completed either a paper-and-pencil or an internet based survey consisting of the UPPS-P

impulsive behaviour scale, the drinking motives questionnaire (DMQ) and the daily

drinking questionnaire (DDQ). Results: The majority of the sample drank alcohol at least

once a month (91%). A multiple regression analysis found coping and enhancement

motives to be statistically significant predictors of alcohol consumption. A positive

correlation was found between coping (p<.0005) and social motives (p<.0005) and

impulsivity. Conclusion: Coping and enhancement drinking motives were shown to be

mediators of alcohol consumption in a communal sample, addressing the gap in the

literature which tends to focus on adolescences. The results also demonstrate the

importance of tailoring interventions to an individual’s specific need. Limitations and

future research are reported in the discussion.


Is your impulsive personality causing you to drink more? The mediating role

of impulsivity and drinking motives on alcohol use

Alcohol is one of the world’s most commonly used drugs and alcohol misuse is

very evident in western cultures. It has been reported that alcohol consumption in the UK

has almost doubled since 1961 (WHO, 2011). Alcohol misuse is important as it can have

significant psychological, social and physical health consequences as alcohol has been

found to be a mediator in 60 different types of diseases, is the result of 2.5 million global

deaths per year and around 15,000 deaths per year in the UK (United Kingdom

Department of Health, 2013;WHO, 2013). In 2010 to 2011 it was reported that 1.2 million

individuals in the UK were admitted to hospital due to alcohol-related consequences

(United Kingdom Department of Health, 2013). Therefore it is important to investigate

what motivates people to drink alcohol and examine if personality traits, such as impulse

control, influences alcohol consumption. Extending the research into alcohol use, drinking

motives and impulsivity provides additional data, knowledge and understanding of the

cause and effect of alcohol use which can help to reduce alcohol-related problems and

improve interventions.

Alcohol use can have significant implications on all aspects of an individual’s life.

For example, when alcohol use was measured during high school through to the first year

of university, research showed alcohol use in students had negative academic

consequences, and this association was stronger with those who drank on a weekly basis

(Romosz & Quigley, 2013). Research also suggests that adolescents who scored lower in

attention and executive functioning tests tended to drink alcohol and show alcohol

dependent symptoms eight years later (Tapert, Baratta, Abrantes & Brown, 2002). Using

MRI scans and behavioural assessments, research suggests that alcohol misuse may cause


neurodevelopment problems in the frontal lobe, cerebral cortex and cingulate cortex. These

different areas of the brain play roles in memory, attention, motivation, perceptual

awareness, language, consciousness, automatic functions and rational cognitive functions

(Luciana, Collins, Muetzel & Lim, 2013; Silveri, 2012). This may explain the reason why

intoxicated individuals demonstrate an observed decrease in most of these aspects, for

example, slurring of words, lack of cognitive control, loss of memory, decrease in

perceptual awareness and behavioural adjustments (Bartholow, Henry, Lust, Saults &

Wood, 2012).

These psychological, social and physiological risks are the reasons why it is

important to investigate alcohol use in conjunction with factors influencing some

individuals to drink more than others. This study focuses on the importance of impulsive

behaviour and drinking motives on influencing an individual’s alcohol use. Little research

into alcohol use and personality has centred on drinking motives and specifically

impulsivity as being a significant factor in mediating alcohol use (Adams, Kaiser, Lynam,

Charnigo & Milich, 2012).

Impulsive behaviour is central to human cognition as it is a spontaneous reaction to

stimuli, both external and internal, that is incompatible with an individual’s long term

goals, as it is acted out without any thought, control or regard for negative consequences

(Stahl et al., 2013). Impulsivity can also be described as failing to resist a sudden urge that

can potentially harm the self or others; this is when being too impulsive can cause

psychiatric disorders including alcohol use or misuse (Dick et al., 2010). However it is

argued, that there is no specific definition for impulsivity as it is a multifactorial construct,

therefore identifying and measuring different constructs of impulsive behaviour is difficult

as there is not one unanimous definition of impulsivity (Sharma, Markon & Clark, 2013).


Whiteside and Lynam (2001) constructed a four factor model of impulsivity:

Urgency, (lack of) Premeditation, (lack of) Perseverance and Sensation Seeking (UPPS).

The first factor, urgency, is the tendency to act on strong impulses usually in response to

distress. Individuals who score highly on urgency are likely to engage in impulsive

behaviours to alleviate distressing and negative emotions. The second factor, (lack of)

premeditation, is the tendency to act without thinking of the negative consequences. The

third factor, (lack of) perseverance, is the tendency to lose concentration easily and give up

on tasks and/or get distracted by external stimuli. The final factor, sensation seeking is the

tendency to seek out new, exciting and potentially dangerous experiences. Cyders et al.

(2007) proposed a fifth factor of impulsivity, positive urgency to explain risky behaviours

acted out spontaneously due to an extremely positive mood. These five factors make up the

UPPS-P impulsive behaviour scale questionnaire. Cyders (2013) measured the UPPS-P

scales variance across sexes and validated the UPPS-P scale functions across males and

females. The five facets of impulsivity are individually associated with mediating alcohol

use, alcohol-related problems and individual drinking motives (Curcio & George, 2011).

Ibanez, Ruiperez, Villa, Moya and Ortet (2008) found a strong relationship

between impulsive behaviour and alcohol use and misuse in adolescents and adults.

Unplanned drinking and individuals with a lack of impulse control have shown to mediate

alcohol use, alcohol-related problems and negative urgency (Pearson & Henson, 2013). A

meta-analysis of the five factor model of impulsivity (UPPS-P) and alcohol use by Stautz

and Cooper (2013) found positive and negative urgency to have the largest association

with problematic drinking, sensation seeking and positive urgency to have the largest

association with alcohol consumption, and sensation seeking to have the largest

association with binge drinking. A positive association was found with all impulsive traits

and alcohol consumption in an adolescent sample. Other research found individuals who


scored highly in both negative and positive urgency were more strongly associated to

alcohol use than those who scored low in both urgency facets of impulsivity (Burton,

Pedersen & McCarthy, 2012). This was supported by Coskunpinar, Dir and Cyders (2013)

who also found positive and negative urgency to be strongly associated with alcohol

dependency.

Research conducted on rats found that those treated with alcohol were more likely

to choose a bridge that resulted in a small but immediate reward compared to rats that were

treated with an isocaloric solution (control group), who were more likely to choose a safer

but longer route (Juarez, Munoz-Villegas, Guerrero-Alvarez & Flores-Ocamp, 2013). The

rats treated with alcohol showed an increase in motor and cognitive impulsivity activation

in the brain and were less capable of waiting for a permissive stimulus, demonstrating

poorer attention span. This study suggests that alcohol may affect impulsivity more than

attention span, and shows an association between alcohol use and immediate rewards.

Similar observations were shown in another study, which additionally observed rats

that had been injected with alcohol, after demonstrating impulsive behaviour, would

voluntarily intake alcohol to reactivate the impulsive behaviour, demonstrating

uncontrollable drinking behaviour (Poulos, Parker & Lê, D, 1998). Adolescent rats were

also found to exhibit greater levels of impulsivity, in the form of novelty-seeking

behaviour and risk-taking, compared to adults across age and gender (Doremus-Fitzwater,

Barreto & Spear, 2012). Due to impulsivity being observed in both male and female rats,

this study suggests impulsivity is a general feature of adolescence. This explains the risk-

taking and novelty-seeking behaviour associated with alcohol use that is seen in

adolescence. The generalization of the results from these studies however, is limited to

humans as they were conducted on rats, although it does provide significant empirical

research.


However, some research has found no statistical significance between impulsivity

and alcohol use and suggest individuals with heightened alcohol use have higher levels of

alcohol related problems, as would be expected, but tend to be sensation seekers instead of

having a lack of impulsive control (Magid, MacLean & Colder, 2007). However Magid et

al., (2007) found that although sensation seekers consumed more alcohol, they tended to

be more organised than those who scored highly on impulsivity, for example planning a

way home and avoiding the tendency to be careless and disregard negative consequences.

Additional research found impulsivity and sensation seeking and alcohol use to be

mediated by an individual’s perceived typical pattern of drinking behaviour (Hustad,

Pearson, Neighbors & Borsari, 2014). In general, research tends to find impulsivity to be

associated to alcohol use, however the effect sizes across the different studies has varied

significantly (from -0.05 to 1.02) (Coskunpinar et al., 2013) this could be due to

impulsivities diverse characteristics and broad concept (Stahl et al., 2013).

Although research suggests there is an association between an individual’s

impulsivity and alcohol consumption, further motives for drinking have also been studied.

Cooper, Russell, Skinner and Windle (1992) constructed three drinking motives: Social,

enhancement and coping motives, and later Cooper (1994) added conformity. Cooper et al.

(1992) found that enhancement motives were the strongest predictor of quantity and

frequency of alcohol use and of frequency of drinking to intoxication. This suggested that

individuals who drink for enhancement motives are predicted to be heavier drinkers

compared to those who have coping or social motives to drink. Additionally Cooper et al.

(1992) proposed that individuals who drink to enhance positive emotions, rather than

negative, retained greater personal control over the quantity they drank and on deciding

when and under what circumstances it is most appropriate to drink heavily. Read, Wood,

Kahler, Maddock and Palfai (2003) used Cooper et al.’s (1994) drinking motives in


relation to alcohol use and alcohol related problems in students. The data supported that

drinking motives contribute to an individual’s alcohol use and alcohol-related problems,

however drinking motives are not consistently central as the role of social influence and

positive reinforcement motives were shown to be important factors in alcohol use and

alcohol-related problems.

In addition, a study using a clinical sample found that enhancement motives

significantly predicted alcohol consumption for both males and females, however coping

motives only significantly predicted alcohol consumption for women (Lehavot,

Stappenebck, Luterek, Kaysen & Simpson, 2014). This suggest that drinking motives may

be gender specific, therefore an intervention that targeted enhancement motives is likely to

reduce alcohol consumption for both males and females, whereas an intervention that

targeted coping motives would only reduce alcohol consumption for women. Additional

research focusing on males found traditional masculine ideologies, based on cultural and

social norms, were associated with a gender role conflict of how males believe they should

behave, for example the more a man can drink, the more masculine he is perceived (Uy,

Massoth & Gottdiener, 2013). Coping and enhancement motives were found to be

associated with the relationship between gender role conflict and alcohol-related problems,

whereas coping motives were found to be associated with the relationship between gender

role conflict and alcohol consumption (Uy et al., 2013). This research may explain why

males are reported to drink greater levels of alcohol compared to females in the majority of

the literature around alcohol use in both adolescent and older adult samples (Cooper, 1992;

Gilson, 2013).

From a behavioural perspective, the negative consequences of consuming too

much alcohol, the ‘hangover’, should punish the individual and through operant

conditioning the individual should learn from the negative consequences, change their


behaviour and reduce alcohol intake (Read, Wardell & Bachrach, 2013). However,

research comparing alcohol consumption of college students against negative

consequences from first year of college to second, found negative consequences to

increase alcohol intake (Read et al., 2013). This suggests drinking motivates combines

with the effects and advantages of drinking alcohol, such as increasing a person’s

confidence, far outweighs the negative consequences. This was a longitude study

comprising of college students and it could be argued that the increase in alcohol

consumption was due to more stress in the second year. Therefore it is important to

investigate what the underlying motives are for drinking.

Research into coping motives of drinking and impulsive behaviour found coping

motives to be a predictor of urgent impulsive behaviours due to negative emotions,

suggesting that highly emotional impulsive individuals are more likely to use alcohol as a

way to cope with anxiety when they are experiencing tension or worries (Mezquita,

stewart & Ruipérez, 2010). Cludiud, Stevens, Bantin, Gerlach and Hermann (2013)

supported this finding as they found individuals who drink to cope and for social motives

are associated with habitual and hazardous alcohol use due to social anxiety and worries.

Mezquita et al. (2010) also suggests that individuals with enhancement motives for

drinking are more carefree and use alcohol to fulfil their needs for stimulation and exciting

interpersonal interactions. Furthermore individuals who have enhancement motives to

drink were predicted to have a lack of perseverance (Theakston, Stewart, Dawson,

Knowlden-Loewen & Lehman, 2004). Individuals who lack premeditation are seen to

drink for enhancement motives, and tended to drink wine or spirits and engage in risky

behaviour (Jones, Chryssanthakis & Groom, 2014).

Adam et al. (2012) suggest that an individual’s impulsive behaviour is seen to be

the most reliable predictor of measuring problematic alcohol use and that sensation


seeking and lack of premeditation demonstrated a direct effect on problematic drinking,

and an indirect effect through enhancement motives. Adam et al. (2012) support previous

research using the UPPS impulsive behaviour scale and the Drinking Motives

Questionnaires (DMQ) and also found negative urgency was associated with coping and

enhancement motives. Jones, Chryssanthakis and Groom (2013) using the same surveys

supported Adam et al.’s (2012) findings that negative urgency was associated with

conformity and coping and social motives. Jones et al. (2013) found that the majority of

their sample (94.5%), consisting of adolescent students aged 18-25 years drank alcohol at

least monthly.

The majority of research focuses on alcohol use and drinking motives of

adolescents and young adults, however there is little understanding of older adult’s alcohol

use and motives for drinking. Gilson, Bryant, Bei, Komiti, Jackson and Judd (2013) found

that in older adults the most significant reason for drinking was for social motives

followed by enhancement and coping motives. This suggests that older adults tend to drink

more in social situations and at social occasions, rather than for euphoric and coping

reasons. Those that drank for coping motives were shown to have a direct association with

problematic drinking. Furthermore the research suggests that enhancement motives do not

predict heavier drinking as found in research with adolescence (Cooper et al. 1992).

However research using older adults sample has found an association between social and

enhancement motives and frequency of alcohol use which is also found in research using

an adolescent sample (Gilson et al., 2013). However, the sample was predominately

women therefore the results are not representative of the general population.

An additional study on older adults in retirement communities found similar results

in younger adult results. The results indicated that older adults drink to cope with

problems, to be more sociable, and drink in order to enhance their mental state and for


salutary reasons (Bolger, 2000). However unlike research using an adolescent sample,

enhancement motives did not predict heavier drinking, but moderate to light drinking, and

coping motives were still predictor of problematic drinking. However this may be due to

the fact that heavier drinking/binge drinking is not seen as much in older adults as it is in

adolescences as in a sample of 16,785 older adults (age 65 years or above) 95% reported

drinking none or less than 2 standard drinks (10g) per day (Tait, French, Burns, Byles &

Anstey, 2013). It is important to research older adult drinking as most older adults take

medication for various reasons and the combination of medication and alcohol use may be

putting older adults at physical and mental health risk as alcohol can interfere with the

effectiveness of their medication (Moore, Whiteman & Ward, 2007).

Research is uncertain whether individuals’ drinking motives cause them to be

impulsive or whether their impulsive personality influences their drinking motives and the

quantity of alcohol consumed (Jones et al., 2013). Amlung, Few, Howland, Rohsenow,

Metrik and MacKillop (2013) used the UPPS-P impulsive behaviour scale and measured

the frequency of caffeinated alcoholic beverages (CABs) consumed by undergraduate

students. A significantly higher association in frequency of CABs consumed and

impulsivity scores were found for men compared to women.

Dunne, Freedlander, Coleman and Katz (2013) suggest the impulsivity of an

individual is a stronger predictor of alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems

than other expectancies or evaluations. Additional research on individuals with alcohol

related disorders from the ages 18 to 68 in a follow up study 16 years after treatment, with

either alcoholics anonymous or a professional psychological, found the decrease of

impulsive traits was associated with the reduction or diminish of alcohol use for both men

and women (Blonigen, Timko, Moos & Moos, 2009). Littlefield, Sher & Wood (2010)

suggested that as people get older they mature out of typical adolescent drinking patterns


and their drinking motives change, typically to coping motives, and less impulsive traits

are reported, which in turn would suggest the individual matures out of their problematic

alcohol use. However older adults may still demonstrate alcohol-related problems and

report the same motives for drinking as adolescents (Gilson, 2013). Although impulsive

behaviour is rarely measured in older adults, this is most probably due to older adults

being less able to demonstrate impulsive behaviour due to physiological incapability’s. It

is therefore important to research older adults drinking motives as well as young adults, so

that we are able to expand the knowledge of drinking motives, alcohol use and impulsivity

for a diverse and broader age group. It is essential that studies are tailored to understand

alcohol use in older adults, as well as young adults, so that we are able to make

interventions and thereby reduce alcohol consumption and promote healthier lives both

physiologically and psychologically (Magid, MacLean & Colder, 2007).

The present study therefore will examine in a communal sample, whether highly

impulsive individuals are more likely to report enhancement and social motives for

drinking, and report higher levels of alcohol use than individuals who are less impulsive

and drink to cope. The present study will contribute to the current literature that is lacking

research into drinking motives, alcohol use and impulsive behaviours. The majority of the

current literature in the subject focuses on college and undergraduate students as they are

an easily accessible group and are seen to have more hazardous alcohol habits (i.e. binge

drinking) however it is important to have a broader understanding and knowledge of a

more diverse age group, therefore the purpose of this study is to provide more

comprehensive results by using a broader age range and diverse communal participants.


METHOD

Participants

A total of 72 participants, 46 females and 26 males, aged 18-73 (M =33, SD =

16.04) with 54% aged 18-25, and approximately 33% undergraduate students were

recruited for the present study. Participants were recruited via Birmingham City University

by directly approaching people on the campus. Participants were also recruited at a coffee

shop in the town centre of Wolverhampton through direct approach and allowing

completion of the questionnaire (see Appendix A) at that given time. If participants did not

have time to fill out the questionnaire at that moment, they were given a link to an online

survey (designed through http://freeonlinesurveys.com) to complete in their own time.

Participants were asked to state their age, gender and occupation. A participant’s

involvement in completion of the questionnaires was completely voluntary and unpaid.

Ethical approval was granted by Birmingham City University School of Social Sciences

ethics committee (see Appendix B). Confidentiality issues were resolved by producing an

online link to an internet based survey instead of sending questionnaires through email to

assure the participants that their data would be anonymous and confidential.

Design and Procedure

A within-group design was used to examine whether highly impulsive individuals

were more likely to report enhancement and social motives for drinking, and report higher

levels of alcohol use than individuals who are less impulsive and drink to cope.

Participants were asked if they would like to participate in research concerning alcohol

use. Participants who accepted were given an information sheet to read (see Appendix C)

to inform them of the purpose of the research and their ethical rights in participating. After


reading through the information sheet the participant was given a consent form (see

Appendix D) and asked to tick the appropriate boxes, name, and date, and sign it.

Once these steps were complete the individual was given the questionnaire to fill

out in private and asked not to discuss the questions with anyone around them. After

completion of the questionnaire the individual was a debrief sheet (see Appendix E) which

included the researchers email if they were interested in knowing the results of the

research or if they had any questions about the research, and contact details for alcohol

awareness and help website. Participants who filled out the questionnaire online were

given the same relevant information from the information sheet and told that by

completing this questionnaire they are giving consent for their data to be used, and they

understand their ethical rights to withdraw at any time and that their information will be

anonymous. The researchers contact details were also provided if the participant wished to

withdraw their data after completion.

Measures

Alcohol use. Alcohol consumption was measured using the Daily Drinking

Questionnaire (DDQ) (Collins, Parks & Marlatt, 1985). The DDQ measures a typical

weeks drinking and a heavy weeks drinking in the last 30 days. Participants reported the

typical number of drinks and number of hours spent drinking on a typical week that is

averaged over30 days. Participants were given a Standard Drink Conversion in order to

standardize drink size. Participants were also asked how often they drank during the last

month, on a typical weekend (Friday or Saturday) and how much they drank at an occasion

in the last month. Variables derived from this measure include typical weekly frequency of

drinking (i.e. counting the number of days with 1 or more drinks), typical weekly quantity

(i.e. total number of drinks across the 7 days), and typical weekly frequency of binge


drinking (i.e., number of days with 4/5 or more drinks). In the original study by Collins,

Parks and Marlatt (1985) the DDQ demonstrated reliability with α ranging between .66

and .75. The current study demonstrated α of .80 (See Appendix F for Cronbach’s alpha’s

for all questionnaires and subscales).

Impulsive behaviour. Impulsive behaviour was measured using the UPPS-P

Impulsive Behaviour Scales which included 45-items of Whiteside and Lynam’s (2001)

UPPS Impulsive Behaviour Scale and 14-items of Cyders et al. (2007) Positive Urgency

Scale, which calculated to 59 self-reported items all together. The UPPS-P survey is based

on a model of impulsivity which measure 5 subscales of impulsivity: (Negative) Urgency

(12 items), (Lack of) Premeditation (11 items), (Lack of) Perseverance (10 items),

Sensation-seeking (12 items) and Positive urgency (14 items). Each item is rated on a 4-

point Likert scale, 1= Agree Strongly, 2= Agree some, 3= Disagree some and 4= Disagree

strongly. Examples of questions from the UPPS-P include “I have trouble controlling my

impulses” ((negative) Urgency), “I don’t like to start a project until I know exactly how to

proceed” ((lack of) Premeditation), “Sometimes there are so many little things to be done

that I just ignore them all” ((lack of) Perseverance), “I would enjoy fast driving”

(Sensation-Seeking) and “I am surprised at the things I do while in a great mood” (Positive

Urgency).

Individuals who score high on urgency and sensation-seeking and low on urgency

and perseverance are characterized to be highly impulsive. The scores for each subscale

are calculated by the mean response across all the relevant items, after reversing the scores

for specific items. The original study (Whiteside & Lynam, 2001) shows the UPPS

subscales to have good internal consistency were α ranged from .82 to .91 and in the

present study were α ranged from .84 to .88. Cyders et al. (2007) showed positive urgency


demonstrated good reliability were α ranged from .70 (with student participants) to .95

(with alcoholic and eating-disorder participants). The present study for positive urgency

demonstrated good reliability were α was .95. The UPPS-P in the current study

demonstrated an overall α of .95.

Drinking Motives. Drinking motives were measured using the Drinking Motives

Questionnaire-Revised (DMQ) (Cooper, 1994). The DMQ is made up of 20 items with 5

subscales: social motives, coping motives, enhancement motives and conformity and these

motives are measured on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = almost never/never to 5 =

almost always/always. Examples for drinking motives include “because it helps you enjoy

a party” (social motive), “to forget your worries” (coping motive), “because it gives you a

pleasant feeling” (enhancement motive) and “to fit in with a group you like” (conformity).

The original study shows the DMQ to have good structure and criterion validity and high

reliability with an α ranged from .94 for social motives, .93 for coping motives, .89 for

enhancement motives and .89 for conformity (Cooper, 1994). The present study α ranged

from .86 for social motives, .84 for coping motives, .90 for enhancement motives and .83

for conformity with an overall α of .92.

Statistical analysis

The quantity of alcohol consumption was calculated in the whole sample (N=72)

using SPSS statistic 21 by calculating the mean typical drinking week and mean heaviest

week drinking in the last 30 days. An overall mean for alcohol consumption was then

produced by finding the mean of these two variables and typical amount of drink

consumed on a weekend (Friday and Saturday). This produced a good overall indication of

the quantity of alcohol consumption over the last 30 days to produce the dependent

variable. Previous research has used drinks per typical drinking week and drinks per


typical heaviest drinking week independently (Kivlahan, Marlatt, Fromme, Coppel &

Williams, 1990) however this method produced lower Cronbach’s Alpha. Cronbach’s

Alpha for the present study just incorporating drinkers per typical drinking week produced

a Cronbach’s Alpha of .68, compared to the method developed in the present study which

produced a Cronbach’s Alpha of .80. The presence of outliers was assessed using a

boxplot (see appendix G). The outliers from participants 49 and 60 were adjusted through

changing the score by adding two standard deviations to the mean alcohol consumption

(Field, 2009).

Impulsivity level was calculated by computing the mean of each facet of

impulsivity in the UPPS-P model; negative urgency, (lack of) premeditation, (lack of)

perseverance, sensation seeking and positive urgency. A mean for each subscale from the

DMQ (social, coping, enhancement, conformity) was calculated. The primary aim was to

examine alcohol consumption against impulsivity, social, coping, enhancement and

conformity drinking motives using a multiple regression analysis. Interactions between

impulsivity and the four subscales of drinking motives were additionally calculated by

multiplying the mean impulsivity score with the independent mean drinking motives. A

second multiple regression analysis was conducted including the main variables; drinking

motives, impulsivity and alcohol consumption, which further included the interactions

produced between impulsivity and the different drinking motives. Pearson’s test of

correlation was conducted alongside the multiple regression analysis to measure the degree

of relationship between all variables to produce a measure of strength and direction of the

relationship between the different variables (Field, 2009).

The parametric assumptions for the data were tested. Using histograms (see

Appendix H) the data showed to be normally distributed, although alcohol consumption

was skewed to the left slightly. Normal distribution was further tested using test of


normality and alcohol consumption showed to violate parametric assumptions (see

Appendix I). Homogeneity of variance was tested using Levene’s test (see Appendix J)

homogeneity of variance was violated. As some parametric assumptions were violated this

indicates that conclusions are able to be drawn from the data, but the conclusions cannot

be generalized beyond the present sample (Field, 2009).

RESULTS

Descriptive statistics

Table 1 (see Appendix K) shows the mean and standard deviations for all the

variables in the model. The mean alcohol consumption for women was 2.60 drinks

(SD=2.26) and for men was 2.80 drinks (SD=2.60). There was not a substantial variability

in the quantity of alcohol consumption between males and females. Out of the sample 91%

drank alcohol at least once a month and 43% reported drinking alcohol once or twice a

week. Men scored higher on average for impulsivity (M=2.29, SD=.61) compared to

women (M=2.17, SD=.40). Males average score was higher on all drinking motives

compared to women except for coping motives (see appendix K). Social drinking motives

were the highest scored out of all the drinking motive variables in the sample (M=2.93,

SD=1.06). Conformity drinking motives was the lowest scored out of all the drinking

motive variables in the sample (M=1.46, SD=.71). A one-way ANOVA showed a

statistical significant interacting effect between age and coping motives (F(18,53) = 1.86,

p<.05) and age and conformity drinking motives (F(12,59)=2.02, p<.05). No significant

interaction was shown between gender and drinking motives or impulsivity.


Test of correlations

To determine the degree to which relationships between impulsivity, drinking

motives and alcohol use correlate with each other Pearson’s test of correlation was

conducted alongside the multiple regression analysis. A positive correlation between

coping drinking motives and impulsivity (r=.512, N=72, p<.0005) and social drinking

motives and impulsivity (r=.472, N=72, p<.0005, one-tailed) was found. A fairly moderate

correlation between coping motives and impulsivity explained 26.2% of the variance and

22.3% of the variance between social drinking motives and impulsivity. A positive

correlation was also found between social drinking motives and enhancement drinking

motives (r=.750, N=72, p<.0005) which explained 56.3% of the variance. Furthermore a

positive correlation between enhancement drinking motives and coping drinking motives

(r=.595, N=72, p<.0005) was found which explained 35.4% of the variance.

Effects of impulsivity and drinking motives on alcohol consumption

A multiple regression analysis was conducted where alcohol consumption was

entered as the dependent variable, and impulsivity, social drinking motives, coping

drinking motives, enhancement drinking motives and conformity drinking motives were

the predictors. The enter method was used and a significant model emerged (F(5,66) =

7.027, p<.0005). Model 1 (Appendix L) explains 29.8% of the variance (Adjusted R²

=.298). Table 2 (See Appendix M) gives information for the predictor variables entered

into the model. Coping drinking motives (t(66)=2.22, p=.03) and enhancement drinking

motives (t(66)=3.00, p=.004) were all significant predictors of alcohol consumption.

Impulsivity, social drinking motives and conformity drinking motives were not significant

predictors of alcohol consumption. A second multiple regression analysis was conducted


which included interactions between the subscales of drinking motives and impulsivity, no

statistically significant predictors of alcohol consumption were shown.

DISCUSSION

This study attempted to measure the relationship between impulsivity, drinking

motives (social, coping, enhancement and conformity motives) and the quantity of alcohol

consumed in a typical week. The present study addressed the gap in literature which

tended to focus on adolescent students by using a communal sample made up of only 33%

students, with an age ranging from 18-73 years old. The results showed that coping and

enhancement drinking motives were statistically significant predictors of alcohol

consumption, but social and conformity motives were not. The results supported previous

research that found enhancement and coping motives to be a predictor of alcohol

consumption in elderly adults (Bolger, 2000) and adolescents (Adam, 2012). Although the

results conflict with other studies that suggested social motives to be a predictor of alcohol

consumption in adolescent sample (Jones, 2013) and elderly sample (Gilson, 2013) and

have found enhancement motives to not be a significant predictor of alcohol consumption

(Cludiud, 2013). In general, the research tends to show enhancement, coping and social

motives to be predictors of alcohol consumption, however the literature still varies in

results suggesting more research needs to be conducted to provide more robust results.

Impulsivity was not found to be a predictor of alcohol consumption in the present

study, although this does support some previous research (Magid et al., 2007), the majority

of the research does tend to find an association between impulsivity and alcohol

consumption, although effect sizes across studies has been found to vary significantly

(Coskunpinar et al., 2013). One point to take into consideration is that the present study

investigated impulsivity as a whole concept and not in regards to its five different facets.


This was purposely done due to the small sample size (N=72) of the present study as when

using multiple regression analysis, the smaller the sample size the greater the chance

random data can show a stronger effect (Field, 2009). The chance of this happening is

increased as the variables increase, therefore impulsivity was examined as a whole concept

to decrease the variables from ten to six, and decrease the chance of random data showing

a strong effect.

Although previous research has measured impulsivity as a whole concept (Ibáñez

et al., 2008) -other research argues that this raises problems in the results as impulsivity is

too much of a broad concept with diverse characteristics (Stahl, 2013). This is shown in

the literature as a meta-analysis found lack of perseverance to be the strongest predictor of

alcohol consumption and positive and negative urgency to be the strongest predictor of

problematic drinking (Coskunpinar et al., 2013). Other studies suggest sensation seeking

and positive urgency to be the strongest predictors of alcohol consumption and support that

both negative and positive urgency are the strongest predictors of problematic drinking

(Stautz et al., 2013). This suggests that there are different outcomes of alcohol

consumption for the different facets of impulsivity therefore future research should

examine impulsivity in its different facets and not as a whole concept when investigating

drinking motives and alcohol consumption.

Furthermore previous research which examined the different facets of impulsivity

and drinking motives found specific drinking motives to be associated with specific facets

of impulsivity. For example negative urgency was shown to be associated with coping

drinking motives (Mezquita, 2010) and negative urgency was also shown to be associated

with coping and enhancement motives (Adam, 2012) and social and conformity drinking

motives (Jones, 2013). Sensation seeking and lack of perseverance have shown to be most

strongly associated with enhancement motives (Mezquita, 2010; Theakston et al., 2004).


This suggests that future research should focus on examining the different facets of

impulsivity with drinking motives and alcohol consumption as literature shows there is

different relationships between these variables.

The present study found a slight increase in alcohol consumption for males

compared to females but a substantial variance was not found. The results slightly support

previous research that found males tended to drink more alcohol than females in both older

adults (Gilson, 2013) and adolescents (Cooper, 1992; Read et al., 2013). A substantial

variance may not have been seen in the present study due to the small sample size and that

the sample was made up of predominately females, meaning a true comparison could not

be made. Although the present study looked at a communal sample with a diverse range of

age and occupation, which addressed the gap from previous research that tended to focus

on undergraduate adolescent students (Adams et al., 2012), a communal sample was harder

to recruit compared to an undergraduate student sample and the results were difficult to

compare to previous research due to the lack of communal sample studies. Furthermore

using a communal sample may have also been responsible for the violation of

homogeneity of variance as adolescents tend to go out more and are involved in more

social and binge drinking activities (Adam et al., 2012) compared to older adults who tend

to drink less and for coping and salutary reasons (Bolger, 2000).

Correlations were conducted in order to examine the relationships between

impulsivity, drinking motives and alcohol use. A positive correlation was found between

coping drinking motives and impulsivity and social drinking motives and impulsivity.

Although this does support previous research (Cludiud et al., 2013; Mezquita et al., 2010)

it lacks specificity in impulsivity as explained previously impulsivity has diverse

characteristics therefore we would not expect an individual who drinks for coping reasons

to score highly in sensation seeking as research has shown individuals tend to drink to


cope with anxiety and worries (Mezquita et al., 2010). Furthermore contradictory to coping

drinking motives, individuals who score highly in social motives tend to score highly in

sensation seeking (Jones et al., 2013). Therefore we cannot take the present study’s results

too seriously as using impulsivity alone is too much of a general and broad concept (Stahl

et al., 2013). Furthermore it should be noted that correlation does not suggest causation,

therefore there could be many other variables which can explain the correlation between

alcohol consumption and coping and social drinking motives (Field, 2009).

Additional variables that could influence the results are the impact of socio-

economic status (SES) and the type of drinks consumed. Huckle, You and Casswell (2010)

found a relationship between SES and drinking patterns as individuals with low to average

SES tended to drink greater quantities of alcohol. Research has also shown that the type of

drinks individuals consume can mediate impulsivity and drinking motives as Jones et al.,

(2013) found wine and spirit drinkers were associated with lack of premeditation and

enhancement drinking motives (Jones et al., 2013). Furthermore caffeinated alcohol

beverages (CABs) were found to be associated with higher impulsivity and hazardous

alcohol use (Amlung et al., 2013).

The retrospective self-report surveys used in the present study was cheap to

produce and easy to retain data from. However the self-report survey may have exposed

inaccuracies in the results as it can be influenced by social desirability. In particular, social

desirability observed when measuring alcohol consumption. The higher number of drinks

an individual reports the more socially undesirable they see themselves, which may cause

them to alter or under-estimate their response (Zaldívar, Molina, López Ríos & García

Montes, 2009). Zaldivar et al., (2009) also compared direct and indirect (nonobvious) self-

report scales of alcohol consumption and found scales indicated a positive and statistically


significant correlation- thus, supporting the DDQ approach to using direct questions about

alcohol consumption.

Other research has shown individuals who attempt to influence the perception of

their image to others reported 20-33% less alcohol consumption and were 50% less likely

to report hazardous drinking (Davis, Thake and Vilhena, 2010), suggesting that individuals

with high self-presentation may lead to a bias in the results which may under-estimate

alcohol consumption. It is further suggested that individuals who overestimate other

peoples alcohol consumption tend to drink more than individuals who underestimate or

correctly guess others alcohol consumption (Bertholet, Gaume, faouzi, daeppen & Gmel,

2011). Those individuals who overestimated others alcohol consumption also tended to

underestimate their own, suggesting individuals with a cognitive distortion about others

drinking may self-report their own drinking inaccurately.

Further influential factors that should be considered is an individual’s frame of

mind filling out the survey, as their mood may affect their attitude towards drinking.

Research has shown that more emotionally involved drinkers fabricate different outcomes

for their expectation of mood, depending on their actual pre-drinking mood, compared to

less involved drinkers (Merrill, Wardell, & Read, 2009). This research suggests that when

reporting alcohol consumption, an individual’s expectations of their mood, associated with

drinking, can cause inaccurate self-reporting. It has also been suggested that impulsivity is

regulated by an individual’s mood at the moment they’re completing the survey, memories

of their last experience drinking or their overall mood about their life at that point may

influence their responses (Cyder et al., 2007), suggesting mood regulation may be taken

into consideration for future research.


Additionally poor memory and an individual’s current drinking pattern can cause

inaccurate self-report of alcohol consumption as individuals do not typically note how

many drinks they consume on a night out (Collins et al., 1985; Stockwell et al., 2004).

Additionally questions used in the DDQ reporting ‘standard drinks’ in the last 30 days has

shown to produce underestimated alcohol consumption, whereas recent recall surveys have

shown to produce more accurate alcohol consumption compared to retrospective surveys

(Stockwell et al., 2004). Therefore future research may benefit from incorporating an

online web diary where alcohol consumption and mood is reported daily, or multiple times

a day, to produce more consistent and accurate drinking patterns and specific drinking

motives controlled by mood (Mohr et al., 2005).

The present study incorporated both paper-and-pencil and internet based survey

method of collecting data. The internet based survey allowed participants to be easily

recruited as those who did not have time to fill out the paper-and-pencil survey, at the

specific time of being approached, were able to use a link to complete an online survey in

their own time. Research comparing paper-and-pencil and internet based data collection

methods found both methods to be equivalent in internal consistency, intercorrelations and

comfort of completing the questionnaire, with nonequivalence seen in only some aspects

of auxiliary equivalence, i.e. completion time and missing data (Weigold, Weigold &

Russell, 2013). Internet based surveys also make recruitment easier as the 21st century is a

generation of portable technology, therefore people are able to access surveys on

smartphones or tablets and complete them whilst on the go. Research found no

considerable difference between data collection using a smartphone/tablet compared to

data collected on a home-computer (De Bruijne & Wijnant, 2013). However, consideration

should be taken of the fact that internet based surveys are not completed in a control


environment therefore external factors may distract participants and cause them to miss

questions or incorrectly report data.

Future research would benefit from conducting longitudinal studies as there is a

lack of this study methodology in the literature analysing drinking motives, impulsivity

and alcohol consumption (Cyder et al., 2007). Longitudinal studies are important as

Littlefield et al., (2010) suggests individuals mature out of problematic drinking as their

drinking motives change, specifically coping motives, as impulsivity decreases from

adolescence to adulthood. Rather, more research using longitudinal studies will be

beneficial as alcohol consumption in adolescence has shown to be associated with

problematic drinking in later life and interventions for adolescents has shown to decrease

alcohol consumption (Armitage, Rowe, Arden & Harris, 2014). Therefore it would be

useful to investigate: 1) if interventions for adolescences prevent alcohol-related problem

later in life, and 2) if binge drinking in adolescence is just a phase of an individual’s life

that they grow or mature out of.

A lack of research is also seen in literature focusing on elderly adults in respects of

impulsivity, drinking motives and alcohol consumption, even though research has shown

older adults to have problematic drinking (Gilson et al., 2013), which may be harmful to

both their physical and mental health as alcohol may interact and interfere with the

effectiveness of their medication (Moore et al., 2007). Therefore future research may want

to focus not only on young adults and adolescences but also on producing more data for

analysis of elderly adults to target interventions that will help in recovery.

Future research may also benefit from incorporating a behavioural observation of

impulsivity traits in order to produce a mixed method approach to measure impulsivity

accurately (Magid & Colder, 2007). It may also be useful to look at binge drinking


influences on drinking motives and impulsivity as research suggests those who drink for

coping, social and enhancement motives are more likely to engage in binge drinking

(Cludius et al., 2013; Cooper et al., 1992).

In conclusion, impulsivity has been strongly associated with alcohol use in

adolescents and adults (Ibanez et al., 2008) and lack of impulsive control has shown to

mediate alcohol-related problems (Pearson & Henson, 2013). Individuals drinking motives

have also shown to mediate alcohol consumption in adolescence and older adults,

specifically coping and enhancement motives with social and conformity drinking motives

found in some studies but not others (Adam, 2012; Gilson, 2013; Bolger, 2000). The

present study supported previous research as coping and enhancement motives were found

to be a mediator of alcohol consumption in a communal sample made up of a diverse age

range with diverse occupations. The present study addressed the gap in the literature which

tends to target undergraduate students and the inclusion of a personality factor allows a

unique examination into how impulsive traits influence individuals drinking motives and

alcohol use. Future research would benefit by incorporating a mixed method by observing

impulsive behaviour traits, and by using a web diary to produce a more accurate measure

of alcohol consumption and impulsivity. Additionally longitudinal studies will benefit the

literature concerning interventions, to examine if those currently in place are working later

on in life. The variation in results from the current literature suggests that interventions

may benefit from being tailored to an individual’s specific personality and drinking

motives as research has demonstrated different impulsivity traits are associated with

different types of motivations for drinking and quantities of alcohol consumption (Magid

et al., 2007).


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