Personal vs social motivations of undergraduates for using alcohol.

The personal vs social motivations for using alcohol were assessed for 109 undergraduates attending a midwestern technical university. Analysis indicated that alcohol was consumed more for social than for personal reasons and that men used alcohol more than women for the social reasons of meeting new people and meeting members of the opposite sex and for the personal reason of feeling better about themselves. Use was also associated with being a member of a fraternity or sorority and the total number of campus organizations in which students were involved. These results suggest that alcohol education programs should take into account the motivations on a particular campus for alcohol use.