Modeling the Distinct Negative-Reinforcement Mechanisms Associated with Alcohol Misuse and Unhealthy Snacking

Abstract

Background: Negative personality characteristics have been implicated in promoting overconsumption of both alcohol and food. Furthermore, positive motivations (enhancement) and negative motivations (coping) may mediate the association between personality and alcohol or food (over)consumption. Objectives: The present study hypothesised that i.) drinking to cope and ii.) eating to cope would mediate the association between hopelessness/anxiety sensitivity and hazardous drinking/unhealthy snacking, respectively, and iii.) eating and drinking to cope would represent separate strategies. Methods:Participants were recruited via opportunity sampling through university schemes, social media, email and web page advertisements. Questionnaires included the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, Substance Use Risk Profile Scale, Modified Drinking Motives Questionnaire Short Form, Palatable Eating Motives Scale and Snack/Meal Food Intake Measure. Results: Participants were 198 undergraduates, weight-related research volunteers and the public (83% female; 90% university educated). The hypothesised structural model fit the data well. As predicted, there were significant indirect associations between negative personality characteristics, hazardous drinking and unhealthy snacking via coping; specifically, individuals higher in anxiety sensitivity/hopelessness used food or alcohol to cope which, in turn, significantly predicted unhealthy snacking, and hazardous drinking, respectively. Importantly, drinking and eating to cope represented outcome-specific strategies, indicated by no significant association between eating to cope and hazardous drinking, or between drinking to cope and snacking. Conclusions: The current study demonstrates that coping motivations are critical to the relationship between negative personality characteristics and unhealthy behaviors and highlights the distinct negativereinforcement pathways associated with hazardous drinking and unhealthy snacking in majority university-educated females from the U.K.

Distress-driven impulsivity interacts with cognitive inflexibility to determine addiction-like eating

“…Importantly, overconsumption of highly palatable food may be instantly gratifying and provide temporary relief for negative mood (Macht & Mueller, 2007). Because individuals with high distress-driven impulsivity are more likely to engage in these behaviours when distressed, such (initially) impulsive tendencies may be more likely to become learnt coping strategies through negative reinforcement (Baker et al, 2004;Pearson et al, 2015;Reaves et al, 2019).…”

“…To give an example of how such an interaction may drive AEs, people high in distress-driven impulsivity may be more likely to engage in impulsive eating under distress. As a result of this propensity to engage in impulsive eating while feeling distressed, these individuals would have more opportunities to learn that binge eating can reduce stress (Pivarunas & Conner, 2015), reinforcing its use [through negative reinforcement (Baker, Piper, McCarthy, Majeskie, & Fiore, 2004;Pearson, Wonderlich, & Smith, 2015;Reaves et al, 2019)] as a coping strategy. Over time, such a coping strategy may become maladaptive, at which point, individuals who are flexible may be able to adjust their behaviours and find an alternative coping strategy.…”

Food and social media: a research stream analysis

“…Variance explained: 1.93% Keyword # of mentions FL Depression 18 0.793 Anxiety 17 0.749 Addiction 12 0.72 Disorder 16 0.686 Symptom 9 0.638 Distress 8 0.549 Psychological 14 0.516 Stress 15 0.511 Well-being 9 0.507 Personality 16 0.505 Other 6 Keywords* with FL ≥ 0.483 Representative publications # referenced keywords Panno et al ( 2020 ) Front. Psychiatry 8 Reaves et al ( 2019 ) Subst. Use Misuse 7 Kicali et al ( 2021 ) Dusunen Adam 7 Charzynska et al ( 2021 ) Addict.…”

“…For example, the profiles “elevated levels of gaming and pornography addictions” as well as “highest levels of all addictions” are predominantly male, while the profile “elevated levels of study, Facebook, shopping, and food addictions” are almost exclusively female (Charzynska et al 2021 ). Besides, it was concluded that “individuals higher in anxiety sensitivity/hopelessness used food or alcohol to cope which, in turn, significantly predicted unhealthy snacking, and hazardous drinking, respectively” (Reaves et al 2019 , p. 921).…”