Mental Health, Sleep Quality, Drinking Motives, and Alcohol-Related Consequences: A Path-Analytic Model

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective: Poor mental health, sleep problems, drinking motivations, and high-risk drinking are prevalent among college students. However, research designed to explicate the interrelationships among these health risk behaviors is lacking. This study was designed to assess the direct and indirect infl uences of poor mental health (a latent factor consisting of depression, anxiety, and stress) to alcohol use and alcohol-related consequences through the mediators of global sleep quality and drinking motives in a comprehensive model. Method: Participants were 1,044 heavy-drinking college students (66.3% female) who completed online surveys. Results: A hybrid structural equation model tested hypotheses involving relations leading from poor mental health to drinking motives and poorer global sleep quality to drinking outcomes. Results showed that poor mental health signifi cantly predicted all four subscales of drinking motivations (social, coping, conformity, and enhancement) as well as poor sleep. Most of the drinking motives and poor sleep were found to explain alcohol use and negative alcohol consequences. Poor sleep predicted alcohol consequences, even after controlling for all other variables in the model. The hypothesized mediational pathways were examined with tests of indirect effects. Conclusions: This is the fi rst study to assess concomitantly the relationships among three vital health-related domains (mental health, sleep behavior, and alcohol risk) in college students. Findings offer important implications for college personnel and interventionists interested in reducing alcohol risk by focusing on alleviating mental health problems and poor sleep quality. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 74, 841-851, 2013)

Gender Differences in the Relationships Among Major Depressive Disorder, Heavy Alcohol Use, and Mental Health Treatment Engagement Among College Students

“…Moreover, students who consume more alcohol and engage in more frequent heavy drinking are at higher risk for experiencing alcohol-related consequences (e.g., academic or relationship difficulties) that may lead to MDD. Heavy alcohol use may lead to difficulties with sleep (Chan et al, 2015) that, in turn, may lead to depression (Hershner & Chervin, 2014;Kenney, 2013). The gender effect of MDD on pBAC may be the result of women female students and found that during a heavy drinking episode, 22.9% of those with MDD relative to 16.5% of those without MDD had pBAC higher than .08 g/dl (considered the legal limit to drive in many U.S. states) and that 7.5% of those with MDD relative to 4% of those without MDD had a pBAC higher than .13 g/dl (corresponding to significant impairment).…”

“…Findings regarding the association between nonclinical depressive symptoms and alcohol use are also mixed. Among college students, depressive symptoms have been found to be associated with ever engaging in HED (Valentiner et al, 2004), problematic alcohol use (Dvorak et al, 2013), and higher daily alcohol use (Pedrelli et al, 2011) but not with past-month drinking days (Lamis et al, 2010), drinks per month (Gonzalez et al, 2011), weekly drinks (Kenney et al, 2013), and frequent heavy drinking (Lamis et al, 2010;Vickers et al, 2004).…”

Conceptualizing and Measuring Weekend versus Weekday Alcohol Use: Item Response Theory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis

“…For each day, participants entered an open-ended quantitative response regarding the number of alcoholic beverages consumed. Items were based on a variant of the Daily Drinking Questionnaire (Collins, Parks, and Marlatt 1985), an inventory shown to exhibit adequate test-retest reliability (Neighbors, Dillard, Lewis, Bergstrom, and Neil 2006) and criterion validity (Kenney, Lac, Labrie, Hummer, and Pham 2013; Napper, Kenney, Lac, Lewis, and LaBrie 2014). …”

Exercise capacity is not impaired after acute alcohol ingestion

“…[21][22][23] In general population, not only in alcoholic individuals, alcohol is usually taken to reduce stress. Chronic alcohol drinking can alter circadian functions, which are highly related to the stress response system.…”

“…Basal echocardiographic and spirometric parameters were normal and remained so after acute alcohol intake, whereas ACTH, cortisol, and NT-pro-BNP nonsignificantly increased in all phases of the test. CPET data suggested a trend toward a slight reduction of exercise performance (peak VO 2 23.3 W 2.9, ns). Ventilatory equivalent for carbon dioxide at rest was higher after alcohol intake (28 W 2.5 vs. 30.4 W 3.2, P U 0.039) and maximal respiratory exchange ratio was lower after alcohol intake (1.17 W 0.02 vs. 1.14 W 0.04, P U 0.04).…”