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Drinking Motives Mediate the Relationship Between Facets of Mindfulness and Problematic Alcohol Use

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Abstract

Mindfulness is a multi-faceted construct, and research suggests that certain components (e.g., Acting with Awareness, Nonjudging) are associated with less problematic alcohol use. Recent research has examined whether specific drinking motives mediate the relationship between facets of mindfulness and alcohol use. The current study sought to extend this research by examining whether certain drinking motives would mediate the relationship between facets of mindfulness and problematic alcohol use in a sample of 207 college students classified as engaging in problematic drinking. Participants completed the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised (DMQ-R), and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Results indicated that lower levels of Coping motives significantly mediated the relationship between greater Acting with Awareness and lower AUDIT score and between greater Nonjudging and lower AUDIT score. Lower levels of Conformity motives significantly mediated the relationship between greater Acting with Awareness and lower AUDIT score. These findings offer insight into specific mechanisms through which mindfulness is linked to less problematic drinking, and also highlight associations among mindfulness, drinking motives, and alcohol use among a sample of problematic college student drinkers. Future research should determine whether interventions that emphasize Acting with Awareness and Nonjudging facets of mindfulness and/or target coping and conformity motives could be effective for reducing problematic drinking in college students.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology - MS 25, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX, 77005, USA

    Christine Vinci

  2. The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA

    Claire A. Spears

  3. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    MacKenzie R. Peltier & Amy L. Copeland

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  1. Christine Vinci
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  4. Amy L. Copeland
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Correspondence to Christine Vinci.

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All data collection procedures presented here were approved by the university’s institutional review board (IRB) and thus have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute through the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Support Grant CA016672, by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities under Award Number K99MD010468, and by National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health under Award Number K23AT008442. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Vinci, C., Spears, C.A., Peltier, M.R. et al. Drinking Motives Mediate the Relationship Between Facets of Mindfulness and Problematic Alcohol Use. Mindfulness 7, 754–763 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-016-0515-y

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