The Relationship Between Identity Development and Drinking Patterns in University Students

Abstract

ABSTRACT Erikson theorized most adolescents pass through different stages of development in their efforts to form an adult identity with individuals at each of these stages of development possessing different manners of dealing with their problems. This study sought to examine drinking patterns of university students at five stages of identity development to determine if the manner they deal with alcohol is related to their efforts to achieve an adult identity. Participants were questioned about their alcohol consumption patterns, motivations for drinking, alcohol-related problems, the ability to understand and manage their lives and their state of identity development. Analyses of the participants' alcohol consumption patterns showed no relationship with identity development. Participants' alcohol consumption patterns, however, were associated with motives related to each stage of identity development. Individuals who had not achieved an adult identity and were unconcerned about attaining one showed a positive relationship with external motives for drinking. Individuals who were concerned about attaining an adult identity displayed a positive relationship with both internal motives for drinking and the presence of alcohol-related problems. Further, those who considered themselves to have achieved an adult identity also displayed a positive relationship regarding their ability to manage their lives as well as a negative relationship with the presence of alcohol-related Problems. Taken together, these relationships seemed to indicate university students' motivations for drinking and the presence of alcohol-related problems are associated with the state of their identity development. These findings suggest that the search for an adult identity may include development of the ability to manage one's alcohol consumption and its associated problems.