(PS6-C55) An Exploratory Factor Analysis of an E-chug Drinking Motives Scale with Mandated Students

Heavy alcohol use and its negative consequences remain prevalent issues among college students (NIAAA, 2021; Read et al., 2007). College campuses maintain alcohol policies as a response to student alcohol misuse, and sanctions for violating these policies often mandate students to attend alcohol education and/or counseling (Anderson & Gadaleto, 2006). Electronic Checkup to Go (e-CHUG) is a widely used online brief motivational intervention program that provides feedback to college students to encourage them to alter their drinking behaviors (eCheckup to Go, 2021). While the measures included in e-CHUG have clear clinical utility, their psychometric properties have not been evaluated. The current study was designed to evaluate the factor structure and validity of the 18-item drinking motives scale included in the intervention.

The e-CHUG program was adopted by a large public university, which collected data on the variables of interest from 2013 to 2021. Participants were 3,546 students from this large public university who were mandated to complete e-CHUG (58% male, M_Age = 19.06, SD_Age = 1.35) between 2013 and 2021. AUDIT scores ranged from 0 to 40 (M = 8.83, SD = 5.46). Students completed a battery of measures that included alcohol consumption, drinking motives and consequences, and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT; Saunders et al., 1989).

An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to investigate the structure of the drinking motives scale. Based on examination of eigenvalues, the scree plot, and fit indices, two factors were retained. The two factors were moderately correlated (r = .61). The first factor contained eight items and represented drinking motives to lessen negative affect (e.g., “Alcohol helps me reduce stress”; coping motives). The second factor contained 10 items and represented drinking motives to increase positive affect (e.g., “I feel more confident”; enhancement motives) or improve social interaction (“I have fun with friends”; social motives). 

Two hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to investigate the associations between drinking motives and 1) drinking consequences and 2) AUDIT scores. In both analyses, the drinking motives scales contributed unique variance after first accounting for participant sex, age, and monthly alcohol consumption. Both coping motives (β = .231, p < .001) and enhancement/social motives (β = .162, p < .001) positively predicted drinking consequences. Similarly, both coping motives (β = .185, p < .001) and enhancement/social motives (β = .163, p < .001) were positively related to AUDIT scores.

These findings suggest that the drinking motives scale included in the eCHUG intervention may be split into two subscales that are consistent with previous research on drinking motives: coping motives and enhancement/social motives (Cooper, 1994). This dichotomy could have important implications for treatment, such as engineering eCHUG interventions based on which category of drinking motives is more heavily endorsed (Canale et al., 2015). Additionally, the finding that both factors significantly relate to drinking consequences and AUDIT scores provides support for the concurrent validity of eCHUG’s drinking motives measure.