Mindfulness facets, self-compassion, and drinking to cope: How do associations differ by gender in undergraduates with harmful alcohol consumption?

Objective Undergraduate students show high rates of harmful alcohol consumption, and coping-motivated use has been consistently shown to be the most problematic. The present study examines associations between mindfulness facets, self-compassion, and coping-motivated use, and how these associations differ by gender.Participants and Methods:Undergraduate students reporting harmful alcohol consumption (N = 146; 55.5% women) completed self-report measures assessing their dispositional mindfulness facets, self-compassion, and drinking motives.Results:Regression analyses revealed that for both genders, mindfulness facets and self-compassion were negatively associated with drinking to cope with depression, but not anxiety. Non-judging was uniquely negatively associated with drinking to cope with depression in women, but in men, non-reactivity was the sole unique association.Conclusions:Future research should investigate whether mindfulness and self-compassion training for undergraduates with harmful alcohol consumption is more effective if they target students who drink to cope with depression and emphasize different skills depending on the student's gender.