Drinking motives among university students in Europe

Abstract

Background: Cooper’s (1994) Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised (DMQ-R) is frequently used to measure reasons for engaging in alcohol consumption. However, there is a need to check if results from the model are consistent across countries. The aim of this study was to use confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to assess the validity of the DMQ-R in different countries. Method: N = 2057 (Female = 1456; Male = 596) completed the DMQ-R as part of an online survey of university students conducted in six European countries. Findings: CFA supports the proposed four-factor solution: enhancement, coping, social and conformity. However, in order to achieve a satisfactory model fit (CFI=.954; NFI=.946; PGFI=.706; RMSEA=.061; SMR=.060) we had to eliminate the item “Because you feel more self-confident and sure of yourself.†Eliminating this item guarantees the invariance of the model across countries. Descriptive analyses indicate that external factors—social and enhancement—have higher mean scores in all the countries. Discussion: This study confirms the DMQ-R factor structure using data from different European countries. Results show that university students mainly give external reasons for their alcohol use.