Negative Affectivity and Problematic Alcohol Use Among Latinos in Primary Care: The Role of Emotion Dysregulation

Abstract

These data provide novel insight that among Latinos in primary care, emotion dysregulation is a possible mechanism underlying the indirect relationship between negative affectivity and problematic alcohol use and symptoms of dependence. Results also highlight specific facets of emotion dysregulation as potential targets of intervention. Future research should be longitudinal in nature, be conducted among more representative samples, and utilize measures that will better assess the potential variability in these associations. Results of such work may inform the development of alcohol treatment interventions incorporating the use of adaptive emotion regulation among Latinos in primary care.

Emotion dysregulation as a mechanism linking anxiety and hazardous drinking among Latinos in primary care

“…Past work has documented good internal consistency and test–retest reliability for the DERS‐Tot . The DERS has been successfully used among Spanish speakers . In the current study, the six sub‐factors were used as indicators of the latent emotion dysregulation construct.…”

“…Although total scores of 8 (7 for women) or higher have been used to indicate hazardous drinking, more recent recommendations suggest cut‐off scores of 5 and 3 for men and women, respectively, in primary care settings, which were used in the current study. The AUDIT has been successfully used in past studies among Spanish‐speakers . Internal consistency was good for the total score (AUDIT‐Tot; α = .80) and acceptable to good for the subscales ( α = .60–.82).…”

“…One potential explanatory mechanism underlying associations of anxiety and alcohol use is emotion dysregulation, a multidimensional construct reflecting maladaptation in the manner in which individuals understand and respond to their emotions . Among Latinos, past work has documented associations between anxiety and emotion dysregulation, and separately, between emotion dysregulation and alcohol use severity/hazardous drinking . Additional work suggests that alcohol is commonly used to cope with stress .…”

Emotion dysregulation explains the relation between insomnia symptoms and negative reinforcement smoking cognitions among daily smokers

“…For example, lesser ability to observe, understand, evaluate, differentiate, and regulate aversive emotional states would be expected to be strongly related to more aversive emotional symptoms (Paulus, Bakhshaie et al, 2016). As a result of such emotion dysregulation, these individuals may use smoking as a means of regulating negative emotions (Leventhal & Zvolensky, 2015).…”

“…As a result of such emotion dysregulation, these individuals may use smoking as a means of regulating negative emotions (Leventhal & Zvolensky, 2015). Indeed, emotion dysregulation is associated with early smoking lapse (Farris, Zvolensky, & Schmidt, 2016) among treatment-seeking smokers and is a mechanism that links negative emotional states to problematic substance use (e.g., symptoms of dependence; Paulus, Bakhshaie, et al, 2016; Paulus, Jardin, et al, 2016). To our knowledge, there has been only one test of an emotion dysregulation model for insomnia and smoking (Fillo et al, 2016).…”