Transactional models between personality and alcohol involvement: a further examination

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Addiction Research

Background:

• Correlated changes between personality and alcohol involvement are established.
• The functional, potentially transactional, relationship between personality and alcohol use requires further investigation.
• Understanding these dynamics is crucial for theoretical and clinical applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine transactional relations between personality and alcohol involvement across college and young adulthood.
• To determine if personality predicts changes in alcohol use, and vice versa.
• To assess the temporal dynamics of the personality-alcohol relationship in different developmental stages.

Main Methods:

• Utilized bivariate latent difference score models.
• Analyzed two large, prospective longitudinal samples.
• Examined developmental time frames across college and young adulthood.

Main Results:

• Across college, proximal alcohol use measures showed some evidence of predicting personality changes.
• Over longer timeframes, alcohol involvement did not significantly predict personality changes.
• Personality traits showed some evidence of predicting changes in alcohol use.
• Reliable evidence of correlated changes between personality and alcohol use was found, particularly in emerging adulthood.

Conclusions:

• The impact of alcohol involvement on personality change appears limited to shorter intervals and specific developmental periods.
• The relationship between changes in personality and alcohol involvement may be better understood as correlational rather than strictly causal.
• Findings suggest a nuanced, bidirectional, or correlational link that varies across developmental stages.