Alcohol use among Boğaziçi University students: differences by drinking motive, gender, grade point average, level of academic progress, living arrangement, parental education, participation in social activities and perceived harm of alcohol

Abstract

This research examined how set of student characteristics, particularly gender, grades, level of academic progress, living arrangement, parental education, participation in social activities and perceived harm of alcohol relate to drinking motives and amount of alcohol consumed, and how drinking motives and alcohol consumed relate to each other. Participants were 842 female and 743 male prep to senior Boğaziçi University undergraduate students. The Drinking Motives Questionnaire (DMQ-R) was translated into Turkish. Factor analyses yielded four factors, namely Enhancement, Social, Coping and Conformity just like the original form. Reliabilities were satisfactory. Descriptive analyses indicated that the majority of students were nondrinker. The most common reason for not drinking was beliefs. The most common motives to drink were Enhancement, Social, Coping and Conformity, respectively. Gender, level of academic progress, parental education, participation in social activities and perceived harm of alcohol were related to drinking motives and amount of alcohol consumed, while grades and type of residence did not relate to either. Drinking motives and amount of alcohol consumed were positively and moderately correlated except for conformity motive. When nondrinking students were compared with those who were at dependency risk, differences were found in gender, level of academic progress, presence, education and occupation of parents, number of siblings, students' social characteristics, pocket money and perception of harm in using alcohol, but in grades, type of residence and family visits. Findings indicated the importance of awareness about negative influences of alcohol as a manipulable factor in preventing excessive use of alcohol.