Alcohol misuse, abuse, and addiction in young and middle adulthood

This chapter reviews research on alcohol misuse, abuse, and addiction in young and middle adulthood. Young adulthood is defined as ages 21 to 35 and middle adulthood as ages 36 to 65. The authors searched the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and other databases for the years 1992 through 2004 using the terms alcohol abuse, alcoholism, and alcohol dependence, then hand-searched for the inclusion of age as a variable. The search was limited to research and English-language publications. Unpublished dissertation studies were excluded, as were topics that were reviewed in other chapters of this volume. When possible, articles for review were limited to alcohol only, as compared with other drugs of abuse. Research articles were selected for review if they contained the variables alcohol misuse, abuse, or alcohol addiction or dependence and age. The review included both nurse- and non-nurse-investigators and was comprised of 50 studies. The results are in four content areas across the global area of alcohol misuse, abuse, and dependence in young and middle adulthood: incidence and prevalence, developmental changes, the work setting, and the family setting. Few articles used a developmental framework, although in some studies, the framework was implicit. Nurse-investigators were more likely to produce qualitative studies, although the studies varied dramatically in size of sample, research design, and variables. Overall, there was greater breadth than depth. The use of adult developmental theory was limited despite its potential explanatory potential in this field. There is a need for more nurse-researchers to explore adult developmental theory and pay increased attention to age and developmental stage as explanatory variables.