Self-regulation, adaptive motivation, and alcohol consumption: understanding university students’ motivation for drinking

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective A study was conducted to examine relationships among university students’ self-regulation, motivational structure, and alcohol consumption. Method Participants were student drinkers (N = 105, females = 77.7%, mean age = 19.82 years) who completed a demographics questionnaire, the Alcohol Use Questionnaire, Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire, and Personal Concern Inventory (PCI). Results Self-regulation was negatively correlated with the amount of alcohol that students drank on typical (p < .05) and atypical (p < .01) occasions. PCI adaptive motivation was also negatively correlated with typical (p < .05) and atypical (p < .05) drinking. Finally, adaptive motivation and self-regulation were positively correlated with each other (p < .05). Conclusions The study demonstrates that self-regulation and motivational structure play an important role in university students’ alcohol consumption. Interventions could be developed for experimentally manipulating these measures with the aim of reducing students’ use of alcohol.