Why do festival goers drink? Assessment of drinking motives using the DMQ-R SF in a recreational setting.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: The aim of this study is to confirm the four-dimensional structure and other measurement properties of the Drinking Motives Questionnaire Revised Short Form (DMQ-R SF) among young Hungarian adults in a recreational setting. DESIGN AND METHODS: In a 'Health Tent' at Europe's biggest music and cultural festival, 390 attendees (mean age 23.6, SD = 4.4) completed the DMQ-R SF and answered other alcohol-related questions. Data were analysed by confirmatory factor analysis, repeated measures anova and structural equation modelling. RESULTS: The results confirmed the good measurement properties of the DMQ-R SF in terms of factor loadings, model fit and internal consistency. These statistics were similar for men and women. For both genders, social motives were the most frequently indicated motivational dimension, followed by coping, conformity and enhancement. Social motives were consistently related to drinking, and coping to alcohol-related problems. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: It seems that the DMQ-R SF is a useful instrument for measuring the motivation to engage in drinking in recreational settings, such as parties, clubs and festivals, where hard-to-reach target groups vulnerable to risky drinking behaviour are present, but time for filling out questionnaires is restricted.