Commentary on Littlefield etal. (2013): Enhancement and coping drinkers-non-existent or difficult to find?

摘要

The paper written by Littlefleld and colleagues [1] examines the scientifically and clinically important area of identifying and classifying individuals based on their drinking motivation. In recent decades, researchers have provided ample empirical evidence pointing to the existence of two general motives [2-5]: drinking to enhance positive mood (often including social aspects such as drinking to have fun with others) and drinking to cope with negative emotions. This would suggest distinct groups of enhancement and coping drinkers. More recently, however, researchers have gone beyond merely associating variables in a bid to identify individuals who sit firmly in one camp or the other, i.e. those who drink for enhancement and those who drink to cope.