Do changes in drinking motives mediate the relation between personality change and “maturing out” of problem drinking?

Abstract

Recent research has indicated that developmental changes in the personality traits of neuroticism and impulsivity correlate with changes in problem drinking during emerging and young adulthood. However, it remains unclear what potential mechanisms, or mediators, could account for these associations. Drinking motives, particularly drinking to regulate negative affect (drinking to cope) and to get "high" or "drunk" (drinking for enhancement) have been posited to mediate the relationship between personality and drinking problems. Recent work indicates changes in drinking motives parallel changes in alcohol involvement from adolescence to young adulthood. The current study examined changes in drinking motives (i.e., coping and enhancement) as potential mediators of the relation between changes in personality (impulsivity and neuroticism) with changes in alcohol problems in emerging and young adulthood. Analyses were based on data collected from a cohort of college students (N=489) at varying risk for AUDs from ages 18-35. Parallel process latent growth modeling indicated that change in coping (but not enhancement) motives specifically mediated the relation between changes in neuroticism and alcohol problems as well as the relation between changes in impulsivity and alcohol problems. Findings suggest that change in coping motives is an important mechanism in the relation between personality change and the "maturing out" of problematic alcohol involvement.Keywords personality change; drinking motives; alcohol use disorders; maturing out; prospective study During emerging and young adulthood, normative developmental changes in both problematic alcohol involvement and personality traits occur. Perhaps the most salient aspect of the epidemiology of heavy use, alcohol problems, and alcohol use disorders (AUDS) in North America (at least among individuals of European descent) is the peak hazard and prevalence in emerging adulthood and the rapid decrease in both onset and prevalence that occurs in the latter part of the third decade of life (e.g., Bachman et al., 2002;Fillmore, 1988;Grant et al., Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to Andrew K. Littlefield, University of Missouri-Columbia, Department of Psychological Sciences, 200 South 7th St., Columbia, MO 65211-0001. Publisher's Disclaimer: The following manuscript is the final accepted manuscript. It has not been subjected to the final copyediting, fact-checking, and proofreading required for formal publication. It is not the definitive, publisher-authenticated version. The American Psychological Association and its Council of Editors disclaim any responsibility or liabilities for errors or omissions of this manuscript version, any version derived from this manuscript by NIH, or other third parties. The published version is available at www.apa.org/pubs/journals/abn. 5 The intercept for the manifest coping variable at Wave 7 was freely estimated to improve convergence between the observed and estimated means involving coping motives at Wave...

Drinking to Cope Motivation as a Prospective Predictor of Negative Affect

“…Our findings do not preclude the possibility that changes in more macro-level personality factors associated with regulating negative affect more directly influence (or are influenced by) AUD symptoms. For example, Littlefield et al (2010) found that long-term changes (between ages 18 and 35) in DTC motivation and AUD symptoms were both related to changes in the personality dimension of neuroticism (i.e., low emotional stability). Future research is needed to explicate how the processes we identified relate to longer-term developmental patterns linking emotional stability, DTC motivation, and AUD symptoms.…”

“…Such variation in DTC motivation is consistent with Cooper andcolleagues' (1995, 2008) assertion that DTC is a reactive process, and thus DTC motivation should ebb and flow in response to life circumstances. Also, given previous theory and research linking DTC motivation with physiological and psychological dependence and withdrawal symptoms (e.g., Cooper et al, 1988;Littlefield et al, 2010;Merrill et al, 2014), we wanted to examine whether any observed association between changes in DTC motivation and the subsequent month's negative affect simply reflected relative levels of alcohol use disorder (AUD) symptoms. Thus, we first examined whether DTC motivation was associated with AUD symptoms and then examined whether the effect of DTC motivation on the subsequent month's affect was reduced when AUD symptoms were taken into account.…”

Episode-Specific Drinking-to-Cope Motivation, Daily Mood, and Fatigue-Related Symptoms Among College Students

“…Indeed, evidence from a longitudinal study of college students showed that changes in DTC motivation in young adulthood, but not changes in DTE motivation, correlated with changes in coping-relevant personality dimensions such as neuroticism and impulsivity (Littlefi eld et al, 2010). However, the mechanisms through which DTC motivation has these effects have been neither fully explicated nor examined in depth.…”

Alcohol-Specific Parenting, Adolescents' Self-Control, and Alcohol Use: A Moderated Mediation Model

“…self-determination theory; Joussemet et al, 2008;Ryan and Deci, 2000). Moreover, recent research suggests that personality constructs, such as self-control, are infl uenced by environmental contexts such as parenting (e.g., Littlefi eld et al, 2010;Patock-Peckham et al, 2001. It is unknown whether this also holds true for the effects of alcohol-specifi c parenting on adolescent alcohol use (i.e., whether this effect is also mediated by the level of self-regulatory skills).…”