Testing bidirectional associations among emotion regulation strategies and substance use: a daily diary study

Abstract

Background and aims Alcohol and marijuana are widely used among college students. Emotion regulation strategies have been linked to alcohol and marijuana use but little attention has been devoted to modeling the directionality of these associations. Aims of the current study were to test whether (a) daytime use of emotion regulation strategies influences the likelihood of evening substance use and (b) evening substance use influences the likelihood of next-day use of emotion regulation strategies. Design Longitudinal daily diary data were collected for 30 days via online surveys. Setting Northeastern United States. Participants 1,640 college students (M age = 19.2, 54% female, 80% European American) were recruited each semester between spring 2008 and spring 2012. Measurements Daily diaries assessed emotion regulation strategies (distraction, reappraisal, problem-solving, avoidance) and substance use (any drinking, heavy drinking, marijuana use, co-use of any drinking/heavy drinking and marijuana). Covariates included gender, age, race/ethnicity, fraternity/sorority involvement, and baseline depression. Findings Daytime distraction (odds ratio OR=.95), reappraisal (OR=.95), and problem-solving (OR=.94) predicted lower odds of evening marijuana use (p-values<.02). Evening heavy drinking (OR=.90) and marijuana use (OR=.89) predicted lower odds of next-day problem-solving, with heavy drinking also predicting higher odds (OR=1.08) of next-day avoidance and marijuana use also predicting higher odds (OR=1.08) of next-day reappraisal (p-values<.03). Conclusions There appear to be reciprocal relations among emotion regulation strategies (distraction, reappraisal, and problem-solving) and substance use: greater daytime use of emotion regulation strategies predicts lower evening substance use, while higher evening substance use predicts higher next day avoidance and reappraisal but lower next-day problem-solving.

Extension of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to Predict Patterns of Marijuana Use among Young Iranian Adults

“…With regard to (the lack of) problem-solving skills, this is considered as mental flexibility in identifying adaptive solutions to problems encountered in everyday life [44]. Compared to individuals with no substance use disorder, individuals with substance use disorder reported a narrower range and poorer quality of problem-solving skills [44,45]. Specifically, Weiss et al [45] showed that more effective problem-solving strategies, along with greater daytime use of distraction, and reappraisal predicted lower evening substance use.…”

A contextual model of self-regulation change mechanisms among individuals with addictive disorders

“…Of note, Weiss et al (2017) recently investigated the dynamic interplay between self-regulation and substance use by collecting daily-diary data from college student drinkers with no prior alcohol treatment experiences. They found that evening heavy drinking predicted lower odds of next-day problem-solving and higher odds of next-day avoidance (i.e., avoiding dealing with situation), and that evening marijuana use predicted lower odds of next-day problem-solving and higher odds of next-day cognitive reappraisal.…”

Ambulatory Assessment of Adolescent Coping: It's a Complicated Process

“…However, we note some useful work‐arounds in the literature. For example, Weiss, Bold, Sullivan, Armeli, and Tennen () investigated the bidirectional associations between daily emotion regulation strategies and substance use in daily diary design. To do so, they simultaneously enquired about the current day's emotion regulation strategies (e.g., “since waking until the time of the report”), and substance use during the previous evening (e.g., “since completing yesterday's survey”), thus, allowing for lagged models to test these relations.…”

“…Youth commonly cope with stressors in the form of negative cognitions (regarding the present or the future) or the recollection of past negative experiences. As such, a smaller subset of studies has measured adolescents coping responses to unpleasant internal experiences (Mori, Takano, & Tanno, ; Shahar & Herr, ; Weiss et al., ).…”

“…For instance, Weiss et al. () reported an impressive 88% compliance without incentives. However, participants within this study could respond to missed prompts up to 3 days later, which naturally would have reduced missing data points, but at the cost of reducing the reliability of their responses.…”