Coping Expectancies, Not Enhancement Expectancies, Mediate Trauma Experience Effects on Problem Alcohol Use: A Prospective Study From Early Childhood to Adolescence

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective:The relationship between experiencing trauma and increased alcohol consumption has been well established. Exposure to childhood trauma has been linked to both early onset of drinking and problematic substance use. However, the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unclear. The results of early work suggested that drinking to relieve negative affect (i.e., drinking to cope) was driving this connection. However, the findings of more recent work suggest that drinking might be used to enhance positive affect as a way of addressing the aftereffects of early trauma. The current study looked at these two drinking expectancies as indirect pathways between the experience in early childhood of living in a home with parental violence and peak alcohol use in emerging adulthood. Method: Participants were 1,064 children and their parents involved in a longitudinal community study of children at high risk for the development of alcoholism and a community contrast group of those at lower risk. Baseline assessment was at age 3-5 years, self-reports of internalizing behavior and drinking expectancies were obtained at age 12-14, and drinking measures were assessed at age 18-20. Results: Results indicated that coping expectancy was a mediator of the relationship between early childhood trauma and later peak alcohol use, whereas enhancement expectancy was not. Conclusions: Children living in homes with parental violence were more likely to develop ineffective coping strategies, such as using alcohol to decrease negative affect. These results support the self-medication theory. They also demonstrate the long-term effects of early life experience on drinking behavior in early adulthood. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 76, 781-789, 2015)

Exposure to Parental Alcohol Use Rather Than Parental Drinking Shapes Offspring's Alcohol Expectancies

“…Additionally, adolescents’ exposure to fathers’ alcohol use was associated with coping AE, indicating that when adolescents see their fathers drinking more often, they associate alcohol use with drinking to forget problems. This is important, since coping AE are found to be predictive of peak alcohol use in later adolescence (Jester et al., ). Fathers’ exposure appeared predictive of enhancement AE among boys.…”

A Systematic Review of Amenable Resilience Factors that Moderate and/or Mediate the Relationship between Childhood Adversity and Mental Health in Young People

“…However, aggression did not mediate the association between emotional neglect and non-violent delinquency, as well as between physical neglect and violent delinquency (58). Jester et al (48) showed that high alcohol coping expectancy, i.e., consuming alcohol to handle stress, mediates the association between inter-parent violence and both peak alcohol use and heavy episodic drinking (when taking distress as intermediate predictor into account). In contrast, no mediation effects were found for alcohol enhancement expectancy, i.e., consuming alcohol to improve mood (48).…”

Tipos de violencia en la infancia que inciden en el abuso y dependencia de cannabis entre adolescentes: una revisión sistemática y metaanálisis

“…Esta exposición puede ocurrir de manera directa, en forma de victimización; o indirectamente, al presenciar algún tipo de violencia (Foster y Brooks-Gunn, 2009). La exposición a la violencia en la infancia resulta en índices más altos de desórdenes por estrés postraumático, depresión y problemas conductuales (Jester, Steinberg, Heitzeg y Zucker, 2015). Además, es un factor de riesgo para el desarrollo de abuso de sustancias en la adultez (Odds Ratio (OR) 2,84, IC 95% [1,26]) (Benjet et al, 2010;Jester et al, 2015;Kuhar, 2012).…”

“…La exposición a la violencia en la infancia resulta en índices más altos de desórdenes por estrés postraumático, depresión y problemas conductuales (Jester, Steinberg, Heitzeg y Zucker, 2015). Además, es un factor de riesgo para el desarrollo de abuso de sustancias en la adultez (Odds Ratio (OR) 2,84, IC 95% [1,26]) (Benjet et al, 2010;Jester et al, 2015;Kuhar, 2012). De manera similar, el abuso sexual grave durante la infancia, se ha relacionado con un aumento en el riesgo para el abuso/dependencia al alcohol (OR 3,3, IC 95% [1,7-6,6]), o el abuso/dependencia a otras drogas (OR 5,1, IC 95% [2,5-10,2]) en la edad adulta temprana .…”