Cultural variation in the relationship between social motives, drinking, and alcohol-related problems

College students consume alcohol based on different motivations, and past research indicates that these drinking motives can differentially predict alcohol-related consequences. However, little is known about how drinking motives and consequences operate in Latinx individuals and other ethnic minority groups. The present study examined social drinking motives and their links to drinking consequences and problematic drinking in a college sample. Participants were 106 Latinx, Asian/Asian American, and European American undergraduates. Social motives were positively and significantly linked to drinking outcomes, but these main effects were qualified by an interaction between social motives and ethnicity on drinking outcomes, such that greater social motives was significantly linked to problematic drinking and drinking consequences for European Americans, but not for Latinx or Asian/Asian American participants. Implications for theory and intervention are discussed.