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Related Experiment Video

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Modeling Alcohol Consumption in Rodents Using Two-Bottle Choice Home Cage Drinking and Microstructural Analysis

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Drinking to dampen affect variability: findings from a college student sample.

Nisha C Gottfredson¹, Andrea M Hussong

¹Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA. nisha.gottfredson@duke.edu

Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs

|June 7, 2013

Summary

Emotional reactivity variability, not just negative feelings, predicts increased alcohol use and drinking to cope. Fluctuations in daily mood are linked to higher alcohol consumption.

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Neuroscience
Addiction Research

Background:

Emotional reactivity is crucial for mental well-being.
Difficulty regulating emotions is linked to various psychological issues.
Alcohol is often used as a coping mechanism for emotional distress.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the relationship between emotional reactivity, operationalized as affect variability, and alcohol use.
To determine if affect variability predicts alcohol frequency and coping motives.
To compare the predictive power of affect variability versus the level of negative affect on alcohol involvement.

Main Methods:

Intensive longitudinal study over 28 days with 86 college-age students.
Daily self-report of positive and negative affect (thrice daily) and alcohol use (once daily).
Assessment of coping motives at the study's initiation.

Main Results:

Affect variability significantly predicted increased drinking frequency and higher levels of drinking to cope.
The mean level of negative affect was not associated with increased drinking frequency or coping motives.
Both individual differences in affect variation and daily fluctuations in affect were linked to higher alcohol consumption.

Conclusions:

Individuals with higher affect variability are at increased risk for higher alcohol involvement.
Increased likelihood of alcohol use is associated with days exhibiting greater affect fluctuation.
Future research on self-medication should incorporate negative affect variability alongside or instead of the level of negative affect.