(PS1-A13) Associations Between Alcohol Use Motivations and Alcohol Use Frequency, Binge Drinking Frequency, and Problematic Alcohol Use Among Active Duty Junior Enlisted Soldiers and Non-commissioned Officers

Introduction: Problematic alcohol use is a serious, but preventable threat to the behavioral health of active-duty Service Members (ADSM) and to overall military readiness (i.e., leading cause of hospitalization), resulting in numerous calls from governmental agencies to better understand etiological and mechanistic factors that contribute to alcohol misuse within the military. Alcohol use motives are reliable predictors of subsequent alcohol-related behaviors, and are considered malleable targets for prevention and interventions efforts. However, empirical research indicates that drinking motives substantively differ across contextually-distinct populations. Although some research has been conducted among related veteran and reservist populations, limited work has been specifically focused on ADSM. Further, no research has differentially evaluated motives and alcohol outcomes among ADSM based on military rank – the most globally distinguishing factor in the military, which has been used as a delaminating marker in the development of other prevention and treatment efforts among ADSM.

Method: Participants included 682 ADSM recruited from a large installation in the United States for a parent study focused on behavioral health in the military. Structural equation modeling comprehensively evaluated associations between four drinking motives (i.e., enhancement, social, conformity, coping) and the three identified alcohol misuse metrics (i.e., alcohol frequency, binge frequency, alcohol-related problems). Three models were evaluated: one full (combined) model and two separate models based on military rank – junior enlisted (i.e., E1-E4) and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) (i.e., E5-E9).

Results: Results for both the full sample and the junior enlisted sample indicated that enhancement motives and coping motives were associated with increases in all alcohol misuse metrics (i.e., alcohol use frequency, binge drinking frequency, and alcohol-related problems). However, among NCOs, results indicated that only binge drinking frequency was associated with both enhancement and coping motives, whereas alcohol use frequency and alcohol-related problems were only associated with coping motives. Notably, results also indicated that alcohol use motives accounted for more variance across all alcohol-related metrics among NCOs, relative to junior enlisted ADSM.

Conclusion(s): Findings generally support extant military-related literature highlighting that use of alcohol for coping (e.g., with depressive symptoms, anxiety) is the motivation most consistently associated with increased alcohol use outcomes. However, novel findings from the current study indicate enhancement motives – using alcohol to attain some positive internal reward (e.g., ‘…because I like the feeling’) – as another, often stronger, motivation impacting alcohol use outcomes among junior enlisted ADSM. Further, findings highlight notable distinctions between alcohol use motives (i.e., coping vs. enhancement) and the impact of alcohol use motives (i.e., effect size) on alcohol metrics between junior enlisted ADSM and NCOs. These novel findings have direct implications for prevention and intervention efforts in ADSM populations.