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Drug Use Motives Questionnaire3

Drug Use Motives Questionnaire Test

Understand what drives drug use and dependence in about 9 minutes. A focused 45-item profile supports screening, tracking change, and guiding prevention or treatment.

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Questions: 459 minutes

08:30

October 2, 2025

October 2, 2025
Material has been updated

October 2, 2025
Material has been published

17,999 views

1,559 completions

1,254 likes

Verified by Daniel Hall

Psychologist with 25 years of experience

Scale Explorer

How the Scales are Structured

example score

13/25

Self-Harm (SH)

Measures the extent to which drug use is motivated by self-directed or retaliatory harm, protest, and a reduced sense of meaning in sobriety.

Low

Moderate

High

5 – 11: Low | 12 – 18: Moderate | 19 – 25: High

A score of 13 falls in the Moderate range, suggesting self-harm-related motives are present at a noticeable but not dominant level compared with other possible reasons for use.

example score

19/25

Addictive Motives (AM)

Measures the strength of conscious, craving-driven motivation to use drugs that can reflect emerging dependence processes.

Low

Moderate

High

5 – 11: Low | 12 – 18: Moderate | 19 – 25: High

A score of 19 falls in the High range, suggesting a pronounced, conscious urge to use drugs that may be persistent and difficult to resist.

example score

19/25

Withdrawal Relief (WR)

Measures the extent to which drug use is motivated by relieving discomfort or withdrawal-like abstinence symptoms.

Low

Moderate

High

5 – 11: Low | 12 – 18: Moderate | 19 – 25: High

A score of 19 falls in the High range, suggesting drug use is strongly driven by attempts to reduce abstinence-related discomfort.

example score

11/25

Hyperactivation (H)

This scale measures the extent to which drug use is motivated by seeking stimulation, escaping boredom, or boosting activity and efficiency.

Low

Moderate

High

5 – 11: Low | 12 – 18: Moderate | 19 – 25: High

A score of 11 falls in the Low range, suggesting hyperactivation-related motives are relatively minimal compared with other possible reasons for use.

example score

15/25

Ataractic Motives (AM)

Measures the extent to which drug use is motivated by reducing anxiety, fear, tension, or other negative emotions.

Low

Moderate

High

5 – 11: Low | 12 – 18: Moderate | 19 – 25: High

A score of 15 falls in the Moderate range, suggesting that using drugs to dampen negative emotions is a noticeable but not dominant motive.

example score

19/25

Hedonistic Motives (HM)

Measures the extent to which drug use is driven by seeking pleasure, euphoria, and novel sensations.

Low

Moderate

High

5 – 11: Low | 12 – 18: Moderate | 19 – 25: High

A score of 19 falls in the High range, suggesting pleasure/euphoria and sensation-seeking are prominent motives for use compared with other reasons.

example score

16/25

Pseudo-Cultural Motives (PCM)

Measures the extent to which drug use is motivated by fitting into a youth subculture where using is seen as normal or valued.

Low influence

Moderate influence

High influence

5 – 11: Low influence | 12 – 18: Moderate influence | 19 – 25: High influence

A score of 16 indicates a moderate pseudo-cultural influence, suggesting subcultural norms may play a noticeable role in the person’s reasons for use.

example score

14/25

Submissive (S)

Measures the extent to which drug use is driven by compliance with pressure from significant others or a group.

Low

Moderate

High

5 – 11: Low | 12 – 18: Moderate | 19 – 25: High

A score of 14 falls in the Moderate range, suggesting some tendency for drug use to be influenced by social pressure or expectations.

example score

16/25

Traditional (T)

Measures the extent to which drug use is driven by holiday-related or tradition-based social norms and rituals.

Low

Moderate

High

5 – 11: Low | 12 – 18: Moderate | 19 – 25: High

A score of 16 falls in the Moderate range, suggesting drug use may sometimes be tied to holidays or customary social occasions rather than being a consistently dominant motive.

example score

145/225

Overall Motivational Strain (OMS)

Measures the overall intensity of drug-use motivations as a combined indicator of involvement in drug-related behavior.

Low

Moderate

High

45 – 104: Low | 105 – 164: Moderate | 165 – 225: High

A score of 145 falls in the Moderate range, suggesting a noticeable overall motivational pull toward drug use compared with lower scores.

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DATA-BASED USER COHORTS

Who Usually Takes This Test?

Counselors and Therapists

41%OF USERS

They use it to quickly identify a client’s main reasons for using and track how motives shift during counseling or treatment.

Addiction Program Staff

34%OF USERS

They apply it in screening and ongoing monitoring to inform intervention plans and measure changes in dependence-related patterns.

Youth Outreach Workers

25%OF USERS

They use it with teens and young adults at risk to understand what drives use and tailor prevention or support conversations.

BASED ON AGGREGATED, ANONYMIZED DATA FROM TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FREUDLY USERS.

Benchmarking

See How You Compare

Once you complete the test, your results are compared with real-world data from people in your country.
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.

Self-harm (S)

Average

12.7

Normal range

9.6 — 15.8

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Addictive (A)

Average

16.6

Normal range

13.3 — 19.8

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Abstinence Symptoms (AS)

Average

12.4

Normal range

9.1 — 15.7

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Hyperactivations (H)

Average

10.9

Normal range

7.4 — 14.4

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Ataractic (A)

Average

Normal range

13.3 — 18.8

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Hedonistic (H)

Average

Normal range

7.2 — 14.7

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Pseudocultural (P)

Average

15.3

Normal range

11.8 — 18.7

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Submissive (S)

Average

12.6

Normal range

9.3 — 15.9

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Traditional (T)

Average

Normal range

11.6 — 18.4

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

General motivational tension (Gmt)

Average

152

Normal range

123.6 — 180.5

min.

max.

225

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

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SAMPLE QUESTIONS

Example Questions From the Test

- Yes
- Probably yes
- Not sure
- Probably not
- No
- Yes
- Probably yes
- Not sure
- Probably not
- No
- Yes
- Probably yes
- Unsure
- Probably not
- No

These are 3 of the 45 real questions — the rest appear in the test. No sign-up needed to start.

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WHAT THE TEST MEASURES

About This Assessment

Drug Use Motives Questionnaire Test - Symptoms and Signs

addiction

deviant behavior

addiction medicine

drug addiction

This measure is designed to assess reasons an individual may use substances and to support case formulation in clinical or prevention settings. The Drug Use Motives Questionnaire helps characterize motivational patterns associated with substance use and can inform treatment planning and risk reduction discussions.

The instrument includes 45 items and typically takes about 9 minutes to complete. It is commonly used to profile multiple domains of use motives (e.g., social, coping, enhancement) and to monitor changes in motivational drivers over time; results are intended to complement, not replace, diagnostic evaluation. The Drug Use Motives Questionnaire was developed by Alan W. Stacy and Kenneth J. Sher.

Author: Alan W. Stacy, Kenneth J. Sher

Literature: Cooper, M. L. Motivations for alcohol use among adolescents: Development and validation of a four-factor model. Psychological Assessment. 1994.