Perfectionism discrepancy and falling short of the ideal self: Investigating drinking motives and impaired control on the road to alcohol-related problems
Open accessAbstract
Self-Discrepancy Theory (Higgins, 1987) predicts that the difference between the ideal and the actual self will be associated with impaired-control-over-drinking (IC; dysregulated drinking beyond one's own limits) as well as alcohol-related-problems. According to Slaney et al. (2001) perfectionism is a multi-faceted personality trait which represents both adaptive (e.g. high-standards) and maladaptive (e.g. discrepancy) aspects. In particular, discrepancy has been associated with poorer coping approaches, which may suggest a Self-Medication route to IC. Yet, to date, no one has examined whether drinking-motives (e.g., social, enhancement, coping and conformity) mediate the relations between discrepancy and high standards and alcohol-outcomes such as IC. We used a structural equation model to test indirect associations of discrepancy and high-standards to both heavy-episodic-drinking and alcohol-related-problems through the mediating mechanisms of drinking-motives and IC. Results supported the distinction between discrepancy and high-standards consistent with the Self-Medication Hypothesis (Hersh & Hussong, 2009). Discrepancy was associated with poorer alcohol-outcomes through greater coping-motives, conformity-motives and IC. In contrast, higher-standards were associated with fewer alcohol-outcomes through less coping-motives, conformity-motives, and IC. This study illustrates the importance of personality factors such as discrepancy in the development of problematic alcohol-use suggesting that it might be a good target for intervention.
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Greater IC is associated with adverse drinking outcomes such as alcohol use quantity, frequency, heavy episodic drinking, and alcohol-related problems in young adults.
“Greater IC is associated with adverse drinking outcomes such as alcohol use quantity, frequency, heavy episodic drinking (4+ drinks for women, 5+ drinks for men) [28], and alcohol-related problems in young adults [27,29,30,31].”
From Does Relationship-Contingent Self-Esteem Play a Role in the Stress to Impaired Control Pathway to Alcohol-Related Problems in a College Student Sample? (2023) · cites this paper as [29]
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“Consistent with the extant literature, IC was directly linked to heavy episodic drinking [29] and alcohol-related problems for both men and women [27,30,31].”
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Wang, L.-J.-Z., Liu, M., & Yan, W.-S. (2025) · Psychology Research and Behavior Management · doi:10.2147/prbm.s524864
- Authors
- Canning, J. R., Patock-Peckham, J. A., Walters, K. J., Bauman, D. C., Frohe, T., & Leeman, R. F.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- University of South Dakota (US)
- Arizona State University (US)
- University of Florida Health (US)
- Venue
- Personality and Individual Differences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-06
- Volume
- 159
- Pages
- 109909
- ISSN
- 0191-8869 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7055728
- OpenAlex
- W3008802852
- Cited by
- 10
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 0.60
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Personality and Individual Differences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Perfectionism, Procrastination, Anxiety Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Keywords
- perfectionism, high standards, drinking motives, self-medication hypothesis, coping motives, conformity motives, enhancement motives, social motives, binge drinking, alcohol-related problems, ideal self
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