Associations Between Specific Mindfulness Facets, Self-Compassion, Internally Motivated Drinking, and Alcohol-Related Problems

Objectives Alcohol misuse is prevalent on university campuses, and although alcohol consumption is considered a normative part of the undergraduate experience, it can become problematic when used in attempt to change one's emotional, internal state. The present study examines associations between mindfulness facets, self-compassion, internally motivated drinking (i.e., drinking to cope with depression, with anxiety, to enhance positive emotions), and alcohol-related problems in undergraduate students. Methods Undergraduate student drinkers (N = 170; all women given the possibility of gender-specific pathways) completed self-report measures assessing motives to drink, alcohol-related problems, and levels of dispositional mindfulness and self-compassion. Results Regression analyses revealed non-judging of inner experience and self-compassion were statistically significantly negatively associated with coping-depression (p = 0.012, p = 0.001) and coping-anxiety (p = 0.035, p = 0.012) motives, with self-compassion adding significant variation in coping-depression beyond that attributable to non-judging (p = 0.043). Acting with awareness was significantly negatively associated with alcohol-related problems (p = 0.001). Conclusions Future experimental research should investigate whether interventions and knowledge-translation activities aimed at increasing non-judging, self-compassion, and acting with awareness helps reduce internally motivated drinking and alcohol-related problems on university campuses.