A Study of Drinking Motives and Self-Regulation among Young Adults

The degree of alcohol consumption may vary from individual to individual. Some might drink heavy amounts of alcohol and fall in the category of alcoholics or heavy drinkers while others can be moderate or occasional drinkers. The study aimed to explore drinking motives and self-regulation among young adult drinkers. The study included 100 Indian young adults of Delhi; NCR aged 18 to 30 years. The technique of random sampling was employed. The participants were divided into two different groups i.e. moderate drinkers (N=50) and heavy drinkers (N=50). Three tools were used for the study which were AUDIT-C (WHO), Drinking Motives Questionnaire (DMQ-R) (Cooper) and Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ) (Brown, Miller, & Lawendowski). T-test revealed that there was a significant difference between both the groups of adult drinkers on self-regulation and negative drinking motives though there was a negligible difference on positive drinking motives which was insignificant. There was also significant correlation between self-regulation and negative drinking motives .It can be inferred that drinking motivation, particularly the negatives motives (coping and conformity) are highly linked to excessive alcohol use. Also the level of self-regulation of heavy alcohol drinkers is comparatively very low than people who consume less alcohol (moderate drinkers).