The present study examined how young women's history of sexual victimization (SV) and revictimization affects the process of "maturing out" of heavy episodic drinking (HED) and drinking to cope (DTC) motivation from college to adulthood. Data were from a longitudinal burst study of college students at a northeastern university. Female students were surveyed in Wave 1 (college; N = 583, Mage = 19.1), Wave 2 (post-college; n = 507, Mage = 24.5), and Wave 3 (adulthood; n = 429, Mage = 30.8). SV history, HED, and DTC were assessed at each wave, with drinking outcomes measured daily during a 30-day diary protocol and aggregated at the person-level. We hypothesized that women with SV history, especially revictimized women, would show greater HED and DTC motivation, and that normative "maturing-out" of HED and DTC trajectories during the post-college period would decrease less among women with SV and revictimization history. ANOVA and longitudinal GEE models controlled for race/ethnicity, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)symptoms. Women who had been revictimized reported higher DTC motivation than women with no SV history, child/adolescent SV, or adult SV. There were significant wave × SV interactions for HED, indicating that revictimized women decreased HED less over time compared to women with child/adolescent or adult-only SV. Exploratory analysis suggests that the effects of SV might be related to depressive and PTSD symptoms. Sexual revictimization may interfere with some aspects of the normative process of "maturing out" of problematic drinking that most young people exhibit after college. Given the increasing rates of alcohol use disorders among women, the current study highlights the importance of examining risk factors such as sexual revictimization, which remains a persistent public health crisis among this population.

We examined the associations between individual differences in intensive longitudinal data-derived affective dynamics (i.e., positive and negative affect variability and inertia and positive affect–negative affect bipolarity) and concurrent stress, drinking levels, and affect-regulation drinking motives across three time points spanning early adulthood. This allowed us to evaluate the stability of the affective dynamics and whether their associations with alcohol outcomes varied across this critical developmental period. Moderate-to-heavy college drinkers (N = 1139, 51% women) reported on their affective states, stress, drinking levels, and drinking motives daily for 30 days using a web-based daily diary in three assessment waves: during college and at two post-college waves, approximately 5 and 10 years after the initial assessment. Findings indicated moderate stability of the affect dynamic indicators, except for inertia. Negative affect variability showed the strongest positive association with mean daily stress. Individuals who demonstrated stronger affect bipolarity had lower drinking levels and higher enhancement motivation. None of the other dynamic indicators were consistently related to the drinking outcomes in the predicted direction after controlling for mean affect levels, and we found little evidence for changes in these effects across time. Our results add to the inconsistent literature regarding the associations between affective dynamics and alcohol-related outcomes.

College matriculation is a major life transition. Most students enter college during young adulthood, a critical development period for social and mental health. Students who enter college with mental health challenges may struggle to connect with peers and capitalize on abundant social opportunities. In particular, social anxiety and depression symptoms may alter longer-term trajectories of students’ social functioning (namely social support and time spent socializing) throughout college. To examine the prospective relationships between these mental health symptoms and social functioning, we conducted a longitudinal study with undergraduates ( N = 323) who completed baseline surveys and 30-day daily diaries each year of college. Using multilevel growth curve models, we tested separate forward- and reverse-direction effects to assess changes in symptom–functioning relationships over time. Results indicated that higher social anxiety symptoms predicted a steeper decline in time spent socializing, but not in perceived social support. Depression symptoms did not predict changes in social functioning trajectories; however, greater perceived social support was associated with fewer depression symptoms on average. These findings suggest that social anxiety symptoms may increase risk for social isolation, which could, in turn, worsen mental health outcomes. Moreover, our results provide support for the stress-buffering hypothesis and suggest that social support may help mitigate mild depression symptoms.

OBJECTIVE:Attaining adult roles has been posited to play a key role in maturing out of problematic alcohol use. However, inconsistent effects have been found for certain roles (e.g., full-time work), and relatively few studies have examined roles unique to the post-college period, such as returning home to live with parents and attending graduate school. We furthered this research by examining how attainment of various roles (romantic relationships, full-time work, graduate school, and living independently from parents) in the immediate years after college, and stress related to these domains, were uniquely related to drinking level, drinking to cope motivation and drinking-related problems. METHODS:Moderate to heavy college student drinkers (N = 864) reported their drinking level, drinking motives, and drinking-related problems in college and again five years later (post-college). Adult role attainment was assessed post-college, and stress related to these domains was evaluated using semi-structured phone-based interviews. RESULTS:Aspects of the romantic relationship domain were the most consistent predictors of post-college alcohol outcomes, with individuals in relationships engaging in less frequent heavy drinking and having lower levels drinking to cope motivation and drinking-related problems. Similarly, lower levels of romantic relationship stress were related to lower levels of drinking to cope motivation and drinking-related problems. We also found lower drinking-related problems among individuals currently enrolled in graduate school and lower drinking frequency among individuals living with parents. CONCLUSIONS:Adult life role attainment and stress beyond the romantic relationship domain might have limited effects on alcohol-related outcomes during the immediate years post-college.

BACKGROUND:Evidence indicates that high levels of drinking to cope (DTC) motivation, independent of drinking level, might precede temporally proximal increases in negative affect and interpersonal stress. In the present study, we examined whether high levels of DTC motivation were related to these outcomes prospectively over a 5-year period. METHOD:We assessed college student drinkers first in college and then approximately 5 years later after leaving the college environment. At both time points participants reported depression symptoms in a one-time survey and daily drinking level, motives, and interpersonal stress via a 30-day diary. Interpersonal chronic stress was also assessed at wave 2 using a semi-structured phone-based interview. Finally, neuroticism, trait avoidance coping, and drinking-related problems were assessed in college and used as control variables. RESULTS:DTC motivation assessed in college was uniquely and positively related to post-college depressive symptoms, mean levels of daily interpersonal stress, and interview-rated interpersonal stress. CONCLUSIONS:Engagement in high levels of coping-motivated alcohol use in college could be a risk factor for longer-term internalizing symptoms and interpersonal problems. Individuals with high levels of DTC motivation in college could be a useful target for prevention and intervention.

Background:Family history of alcohol use disorder (FHA) is posited to convey its risk on problematic drinking partly through how individuals react to stressful situations. Research thus far has found equivocal results, with some studies concluding that FHA is associated with heightened stress-reactivity and others finding FHA associated with blunted stress-reactivity. In addition, the preponderance of this research has been conducted using laboratory-based paradigms, raising questions about the ecological validity of the findings. The purpose of the current study was to further clarify the association between FHA and affective reactions to two types of stress (social and academic stress) using an ecologically valid, intensive-longitudinal research design.Methods:Participants were 1,606 undergraduate students (54% women) who completed a baseline survey, including questions related to family history of alcohol use, and who subsequently completed a 30-day daily diary reporting on their daily stress and affective states.Results:Results showed a weaker positive association between social stress and anxiety and depressive affect among individuals with more paternal alcohol use disorder symptoms, consistent with a blunted stress-reactivity perspective.Conclusions:The results add to the current literature, providing a direction for future research to continue to clarify the nature of FHA and stress-reactivity.

Dancers are at heightened risk for eating disorders (EDs) and have job and training demands that obscure ED assessment and likely impede treatment. Two behavioral manifestations of ED psychopathology that may present uniquely in a dance environment are body checking and body avoidance. The current study sought to provide a foundational understanding of the phenomenology of body checking and avoidance among dancers by assessing the reliability (i.e., internal consistency) of existing body checking and avoidance measures and the relationships, or convergent validity, between measures of body checking and avoidance and measures of related constructs. Eighty professional and pre-professional (i.e., conservatory level) dancers (78.8 % female) from seven dance genres completed self-report measures of body checking and avoidance, ED pathology, clinical perfectionism, depression, and anxiety. Across the dancer sample, body checking and avoidance measures demonstrated adequate internal consistency. More frequent body checking and body avoidance was strongly related to higher levels of ED pathology. There were moderate to strong correlations between body checking and body avoidance and clinical perfectionism, depression, and anxiety such that higher body checking and body avoidance was related to higher clinical perfectionism, depression, and anxiety. Exploratory analyses found no significant differences between ballet dancers and dancers of other dance genres; professional dancers scored in the normative range on measures of body checking and body avoidance. Dancers' qualitative descriptions of body checking and avoidance revealed behaviors not included in existing questionnaires, such as unique mirror use behaviors, technology-assisted body checking, and the checking and avoidance of body parts relevant to the dance-specific body ideal. Results support the inclusion of body checking and avoidance interventions in ED treatments for dancers (particularly pre-professional dancers) and emphasize the need for dancer-specific ED assessment methods.

Friendship-related stress is an understudied factor that may explain variation in coping-motivated and socially-motivated drinking among emerging adults. This study examined chronic and episodic friendship stress as predictors of drinking levels and motivations among emerging adults transitioning to post-college life. College drinkers reported drinking motives and alcohol consumption daily for 30 days using an Internet-based diary in college and five years later ( N = 897, 54.2% women, Mage = 24.6 at follow-up, 86.0% White). Post-college, participants completed by phone the UCLA-Life Stress Interview assessing chronic and episodic friendship/social life stress. Chronic friendship/social life stress was positively correlated with mean levels of post-college drinking-to-cope motivation and was negatively related to post-college heavy drinking and social drinking motivation. Emerging adults experiencing friendship stress are more likely to use alcohol as a coping mechanism, elevating their risk for alcohol-related problems. Those with low friendship stress may require public health interventions around the risks of heavy drinking.

Background: Recent evidence indicates that alcohol and other substance co-use, compared to alcohol-only use, might be more closely associated with negative reinforcement processes, and thus more likely during periods of increased stress. The present study examined this possibility by using data from an intensive longitudinal (daily) study of college student drinkers (N = 1461, 54% women). We also examined individual differences in coping and enhancement drinking motives as predictors of alcohol and other substance co-use. Results: We used multilevel multinomial logistic regression to predict, relative to alcohol-only days, the likelihood of alcohol co-use with either cigarettes or marijuana, along with alcohol use with multiple substances and other substance-only use from daily interpersonal and academic stress, day-of-the-week, sex, and individual differences in coping and enhancement drinking motives. We found that, relative to alcohol-only, alcohol and marijuana co-use was more likely, and non-alcohol related substance use was less likely, on weekends. Alcohol and marijuana co-use was less likely, and other substance-only use was more likely, on days characterized by greater academic stress, whereas alcohol and cigarette co-use was more likely on days characterized by greater interpersonal stress. Individuals with higher levels of drinking to cope motivation were more likely to engage in alcohol and cigarette co-use, other substance-only use, and alcohol plus multiple substances, relative to alcohol-only. Individuals with higher levels of enhancement motives were more likely to engage in all types of alcohol and other substance co-use and other substance-only use relative to alcohol-only. Conclusions: Findings are discussed in terms of the complex nature of different patterns of co-use patterns when evaluating indicators of positive- and negative-reinforcement processes.

OBJECTIVE:Egocentric social network analyses show that drinking habits of college students' friends predict personal alcohol consumption. To date, most of this research focused on between-person, cross-sectional, or long-term longitudinal designs to evaluate these effects. This study used intensive longitudinal methods to examine episode-specific effects of social networks (network drinking, network composition) on college students' drinking, comparing within-person and between-person effects on individual episodic drinking, and highlighted social network characteristics that might be targeted for intervention. METHOD:College students (N = 1,151, 54% female, Mage = 19.26, 81% White) identified their ego network: five close alters (e.g., friends, family) whom they met frequently. For 30 days using an internet-based diary, participants reported their daily drinking levels, indicated whether they met with each alter the previous night, and reported how many drinks each alter consumed. RESULTS:Two-part multilevel models were used to examine participant drinking. At the within-person level, when a higher proportion of a participant's ego network drank and when network total drinks were higher than average, the odds that a participant drank were significantly increased, and if they did drink, they consumed more alcoholic drinks than usual. Participants were more likely to drink on days when their network was comprised of more friends and more opposite-gender alters. CONCLUSIONS:Findings provide preliminary evidence that daily network drinking appears to influence drinking patterns and quantities among students. Such information could be used within ecological momentary interventions to prevent harmful drinking patterns such as heavy drinking episodes and incapacitation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

The present study examined the mediating and moderating effects of affect-regulation (i.e., coping and enhancement) drinking motives in the relationship between eating disorder (ED) pathology and drinking outcomes. The sample included 419 undergraduate college students (52.0% female) who completed self-report questionnaire measures of ED pathology, drinking motives, drinking level, and drinking-related problems. ED pathology was positively associated with both coping and enhancement motivation and drinking-related problems. Results from mediation analyses indicated a positive indirect effect for ED pathology on drinking level through enhancement motivation and positive indirect effects for ED pathology on drinking-related problems (a) through coping motivation and (b) through enhancement motivation and number of heavy drinking days. Little evidence was found for the predicted moderating effects of drinking motives, and few gender differences were observed in the effects of interest. Findings support the notion that distinct motivational pathways underlie the association between ED pathology and alcohol-related outcomes.

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has been a source of stress that may have increased drinking level overall and, more specifically, drinking to cope motivation. The current study tests whether specific domains of pandemic-related experiences are related to drinking to cope motivation and drinking level and whether drinking to cope motivation moderates the association between pandemic experiences and alcohol consumption. Method Participants (N = 292, 57% women) reported on their positive and negative experiences during the pandemic, their drinking to cope motivation, and their typical weekly alcohol consumption. Results Regression analyses revealed that negative emotional health and well-being experiences were related to higher levels of drinking to cope motivation. Negative social activity experiences were related to higher weekly alcohol consumption. In addition, negative home life experiences were related to higher consumption among individuals with high drinking to cope motivation and positive experiences were related to lower consumption among individuals with high drinking to cope motivation. Conclusions These findings underscore the importance of considering the domain of experiences during the current pandemic and future mass crisis events and may provide insight for designing interventions to prevent drinking to cope.

Background: To examine whether individual differences in intensive longitudinal data-derived affective dynamics (i.e. positive and negative affect variability and inertia and positive affect-negative affect bipolarity) - posited to be indicative of emotion dysregulation - are uniquely related to drinking level and affect-regulation drinking motives after controlling for mean levels of affective states. Method: We used a large sample of college student drinkers (N = 1640, 54% women) who reported on their affective states, drinking levels and drinking motives daily for 30 days using a web-based daily diary. We then calculated from the daily data positive and negative affect variability, inertia, affect bipolarity and mean levels of affect and used these as predictors of average drinking level and affect-regulation drinking motives (assessed using both retrospective and daily reporting methods). Results: Findings from dynamic structural equation models indicated that mean levels of affect were uniquely related to drinking motives, but not drinking level. Few dynamic affect predictors were uniquely related to outcomes in the predicted direction after controlling for mean affect levels. Conclusion: Our results add to the inconsistent literature regarding the associations between affective dynamics and alcohol-related outcomes, suggesting that any effects of these indicators, after controlling for mean affect levels, might be more complex than can be detected with simple linear models.

Influential psychological theories hypothesize that people consume alcohol in response to the experience of both negative and positive emotions. Despite two decades of daily diary and ecological momentary assessment research, it remains unclear whether people consume more alcohol on days they experience higher negative and positive affect in everyday life. In this preregistered meta-analysis, we synthesized the evidence for these daily associations between affect and alcohol use. We included individual participant data from 69 studies (N = 12,394), which used daily and momentary surveys to assess affect and the number of alcoholic drinks consumed. Results indicate that people are not more likely to drink on days they experience high negative affect, but are more likely to drink and drink heavily on days high in positive affect. People self-reporting a motivational tendency to drink-to-cope and drink-to-enhance consumed more alcohol, but not on days they experienced higher negative and positive affect. Results were robust across different operationalizations of affect, study designs, study populations, and individual characteristics. These findings challenge the long-held belief that people drink more alcohol following increases in negative affect. Integrating these findings under different theoretical models and limitations of this field of research, we collectively propose an agenda for future research to explore open questions surrounding affect and alcohol use.

Objective: Research links approval-contingent self-worth to college drinking but has not differentiated social and solitary consumption. High approval-contingent self-worth individuals might drink socially to derive approval. Method: In a sample of 832 undergraduates, approval-contingent self-worth and drinking motives were measured in an initial questionnaire, and social and solitary consumption were reported daily for 30 days. Results: Results indicated an overall positive association between approval-contingent self-worth and social consumption and positive indirect effects via social and enhancement motivations, but a negative indirect effect via conformity motivation. The association between approval-contingent self-worth and solitary alcohol consumption was nonsignificant because of a negative direct effect counteracted by a positive total indirect effect. Conclusions: Results highlight the importance of drinking motives and of distinguishing between social and solitary consumption.

Public Health Significance Statements This study indicates that both romantic relationship status and the stressfulness of this social role might help explain using alcohol for coping reasons among young adults. Objective: The current study examined the unique influences of romantic relationship status and episodic and chronic stress associated with relationships in predicting changes in alcohol consumption and drinking motivations from college to post-college life. Method: Moderate to heavy college student drinkers reported their drinking level and drinking motives using an Internet-based daily diary for 30 days in college and again 5 years later. At the post-college wave, participants also completed a semi-structured phone-based interview to assess romantic relationship stress. Results: Multiple regression analysis indicated that chronic relationship stress and relationship dissolution stress were uniquely related to mean daily levels of post-college drinking to cope (DTC) motivation, but not to mean daily levels of enhancement motivation. Some evidence was found for the effect of relationship status, but not stress, on mean daily heavy drinking levels. We also found evidence that chronic stress moderated the effect of relationship dissolution stress, with individuals showing higher mean daily chronic stress levels displaying a stronger positive association between relationship dissolution and post-college DTC motivation. Conclusions: Results are discussed in terms of how negative reinforcement processes might be an important mechanism underlying commonly found associations between romantic relationship status and problematic drinking during young adulthood.

Public Health Significance Statement This study suggests that college students are less likely to be in social settings with others who are drinking following evenings with higher than average sleep duration or days characterized by greater than average daytime fatigue. College students in the present study were less likely to consume alcohol and, if they did drink, reported consuming fewer drinks that evening if they had experienced greater than their average level of fatigue during the day. Objective: To better understand how sleep is associated with alcohol consumption among college students, the present study tested whether last night's sleep duration and current day fatigue were associated with being around others who were drinking that night and, if so, with alcohol consumption. Method: College student drinkers (N = 540; mean age = 18.78 years; 52% female; 86% White) reported daily for 30 days yearly for up to 4 years on aspects of their sleep, their own alcohol use, and the perceived drinking of others in an intensive longitudinal burst design. Results: Participants were less likely to report that they were with others who were drinking on evenings following higher than average sleep duration or greater than average daytime fatigue. In addition, experiencing greater than average daytime fatigue was associated with a lower likelihood of consuming any alcohol and lower levels of alcohol consumption at the daily level. Thus, daytime fatigue may be protective against alcohol consumption through both selection and behavior moderation. Conclusions: Results may be useful in the development of interventions to prevent heavy drinking among college students.

Objectives We examined daily associations between drinking intentions and drinking behaviour and tested past drinking behaviour and current social environment as potential moderators of the daily intention‐behaviour association. We expected both more frequent past drinking and being in a high drinking environment to weaken the intention‐behaviour association. We also tested intentionality as a moderator of the association between alcohol consumption and next‐day negative outcomes, expecting that less intentional alcohol consumption would be related to greater stress and regret. Design We tested these hypotheses using two separate micro‐longitudinal studies of college students ( N s = 1,641, 540). Methods In two samples, participants completed bursts of data collection in which they indicated their previous alcohol consumption and then completed 30 days of diary surveys in which they reported their alcohol consumption and social environment the previous evening and their levels of stress, regret, and drinking intentions that day. Result Consistent with our predictions, drinking intentions more strongly predicted drinking behaviour among individuals with less frequent past drinking behaviour, and, in Sample 1, drinking intentions more strongly predicted drinking behaviour among individuals in a low drinking environment. Contrary to hypotheses, results indicated that individuals with low drinking intentions were more likely to experience stress the next day, particularly if they consumed less alcohol. Greater consumption, however, was related to greater odds of experiencing regret, but this was stronger among individuals with higher drinking intentions. Conclusions Findings are discussed in terms of the complex interplay between intentions and both social environment and contextual factors with respect to predicting drinking level and related problems.

Objective: Drink offers are related to increased alcohol consumption, which is linked to sexual activity among college students. However, offers of alcohol may increase the odds of sexual activity that night independent of the amount of alcohol consumed. Participants: 540 undergraduate students were recruited for a longitudinal study of daily experiences. Method: Participants completed up to four annual waves of a measurement burst daily diary study. Using these longitudinal data, we examined whether receiving a drink offer on a given night was related to greater odds of having sex. Results: Receiving a drink offer (but not the number of drinks accepted) is related to greater odds of having sex, controlling for drinking level. Conclusions: Receiving a drink offer is uniquely related to odds of having sex when controlling for the amount of alcohol participants consumed. This may have implications for psychological functioning and relationship development.

Previous research suggests that, even in college, parents influence the alcohol consumption of their children directly and indirectly through peers. However, research has not tested whether face-to-face interactions with parents buffer students against social influences on drinking. In the current study, 1168 undergraduate students selected 5 people they contact regularly and then completed a 30-day daily diary reporting on interactions with those people and drinking behavior. The 401 students who selected a parent drank less and less often than those who did not select a parent as a frequent contact. In addition, on evenings when these students had met with their parents, they drank less alcohol and the association between others' drinking and participant drinking was weakened. This adds to evidence suggesting that parents continue to influence emerging adults after they have left home and may be helpful in informing future intervention efforts.