Associations between personality and drinking motives in adolescents involved in the child welfare system

• We examined relations between personality and drinking motives in youth in the child welfare system.
• The structural validity of a measure of drinking motives (the DMQ-R) was explored.
• Hopeless and impulsive youth drank to cope with negative emotions.
• Anxiety sensitive youth drank for social conformity.
• Personality risk factors related primarily with negative reinforcement drinking motives.

Specific personality dimensions may increase susceptibility to alcohol misuse by encouraging motives for drinking that are associated with risky alcohol use. In the current study, we examined associations between personality risk factors (hopelessness (HOP), anxiety sensitivity (AS), sensation seeking (SS), and impulsivity (IMP)) and drinking motives (coping, conformity, enhancement, and social motives) in a sample of high-risk youth receiving child protection services. These personality factors were assessed using the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale (SURPS) and drinking motives were assessed using the Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised (DMQ-R). The structural validity of the DMQ-R was first explored in this novel sample of high-risk adolescents using principal components analysis. Correlational analyses showed that HOP and IMP were associated with drinking to cope with negative emotions, and AS was associated with drinking to conform. Unexpectedly, enhancement motives were not related to any of the personality dimensions. This suggests that youth receiving child welfare services who are high in the described personality risk factors drink primarily for negative reinforcement.