Drunkorexia: Normative behavior or gateway to alcohol and eating pathology?

•Motivational model of drunkorexia tested via structural equation modeling.•Tested risk factors of associated motives, body dissatisfaction, and thinness drive.•Drive for thinness and alcohol coping motives positively associated to drunkorexia.•Drunkorexia was associated with alcohol-related outcomes, but not bulimia pathology.•Drunkorexia is a unique construct apart from bulimia behaviors.