Affect-laden momentary classes are associated with self-efficacy and substance use during early recovery from addiction

Affect is dynamic. During addiction recovery, it may be laden with experiences like pain or craving, which may combine to heighten risk for substance use. Multidimensional affect-laden experiences can be identified using a novel application of latent class analysis (LCA) applied to intensive longitudinal data. Identifying momentary affect-laden classes may enable detection of risk for substance use in adults in early addiction recovery.

Participants were adults (n = 185; M = 43.6, SD = 10.7; 40% female) who recently completed substance use disorder treatment. Every day for two weeks, they received five ecological momentary assessments of high- and low-arousal positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA), boredom, tired, alert, pain, and craving. LCA was applied to these nine indicators of momentary affect. Same-moment self-efficacy for remaining abstinent and using substances by the next prompt were modeled as a function of momentary affect-laden classes.

Six momentary affect-laden classes were identified: Activated Positive Affect (32% of all moments); Activated Negative Affect (13%); Low Energy (8%); Calm Positive Affect (26%); Pain, Craving, and Positive Affect (13%); and Pain, Craving, and Negative Affect (8%). Moments characterized by Pain and Craving had the poorest substance use outcomes. Low Energy moments were among the best in terms of self-efficacy and reduced risk for substance use. Activated Positive Affect moments were among the lowest risk for substance use, even compared to Calm Positive Affect moments.

Findings provide insight into detecting poor self-efficacy and subsequent substance use based on multidimensional affect-laden states during early recovery.