Solitary-specific drinking to cope motives explain unique variance in solitary drinking behavior but not alcohol problems compared to general drinking to cope motives

Objective: Adolescent and young adult solitary drinking is prospectively associated with alcohol problems, and it is thus important to understand why individuals engage in this risky drinking behavior. There is substantial evidence that individuals drink alone to cope with negative affect, but all prior studies have assessed motives for alcohol use without specifying the context of such use. Here, we directly compared solitary-specific drinking to cope motives with general drinking to cope motives in their ability to predict solitary drinking behavior and alcohol problems. We hypothesized that solitary-specific drinking motives would provide additional predictive utility in each case. Methods: Current underage drinkers (N = 307; 90% female; ages 18–20) recruited from a TurkPrime panel March-May 2016 completed online surveys querying solitary alcohol use, general and solitary-specific coping motives, and alcohol problems. Results: Both solitary-specific and general coping motives were positively associated with a greater percentage of total drinking time spent alone in separate models, after controlling for solitary-specific and general enhancement motives, respectively. However, the model with solitary-specific motives accounted for greater variance than the general motives model based on adjusted R2 values (0.8 versus 0.3, respectively). Additionally, both general and solitary-specific coping motives were positively associated with alcohol problems, again controlling for enhancement motives, but the model including general motives accounted for greater variance (0.49) than the solitary-specific motives model (0.40). Conclusion: These findings provide evidence that solitary-specific coping motives explain unique variance in solitary drinking behavior but not alcohol problems. The methodological and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.