“Support drinking”: motivations for drinking with close others from the perspective of social support

This thesis explores drinking occasions in which people seek out close others to drink with to obtain social support or support drinking. Specifically, this thesis examines why people initiate support drinking, who is more likely to engage in those occasions, and problematic outcomes of support drinking. In addition to examining concrete characteristics of support drinking, the motivational model for alcohol use, individual differences (e.g., interdependent/independent self-construal, extraversion /introversion) and alcohol expectancies were used to generate hypotheses. Participants (N = 193, mean age = 26, 59% were female.) completed an on-line survey. The most prevalent reason reported for support drinking occasions was feeling stressed or depressed. Of the personality characteristics, only the interdependence orientation of self-construal was a consistent predictor of behaviors in support drinking situations (e.g., initiating support drinking, amount of alcohol consumed, and problematic consequences). Gender, age and ethnicity were also significant predictors of characteristics of support drinking occasions and support drinking behaviors.