Discovering the Hidden Profiles of Employee Drinking Motives: An Application of Integrated Variable- and Person-Centered Latent Profile Analysis.

The drinking motives questionnaire (DMQ, Cooper, 1994) has been a very useful measurement tool for understanding why people drink alcohol. Recent attempts to examine drinking motives used the DMQ within a person-centered analysis framework. However, latent profiles identified in previous research largely presented level effects without strong shape effects, which consequently restricted meaningful interpretations and effective applications of drinking-motive profiles. To address this limitation, we applied a new alternative methodology for the study of drinking motives that integrated variable- and person-centered approaches. Our research clearly demonstrated that controlling for an overarching general drinking-motive construct provided a clearer disaggregation of shape and level effects. Four latent profiles were identified that represented a combination of shape and level effects. Each profile predicted different patterns of alcohol use. Theoretical as well as practical implications are discussed.