Flynn H A
University of Michigan Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Ann Arbor 48108-3318, USA.
Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2000 Jan;24(1):48-52.
Alcohol use in response to stress in college students may be affected by the presence of symptoms of depression. However, this is a challenging issue to study due to the various methodologies used as well as the possible effect of depressed mood on the accuracy of self-report. This study focused on methodological issues as possible sources of equivocal findings regarding the relationship between depressed mood and alcohol use in response to stress in a college student population. Findings may differ when these variables are examined cross-sectionally versus longitudinally.
Depressed mood and alcohol coping were assessed both cross-sectionally and repeatedly over time in 125 college students. Participants were assessed at baseline using a diagnostic self-report measure of depression as well as a measure of typical coping style. In addition, daily measures of stress, symptoms of depression, and coping were completed for 45 consecutive days.
Different relationships between depressed mood and alcohol coping were found when depressed individuals were analyzed separately from those who were not depressed. Although a significant correlation between daily use of alcohol coping and daily depressed mood was found, there were no differences between depressed and nondepressed participants (as assessed at baseline) on daily alcohol coping.
These findings have implications for research design as well as clinical assessment regarding the relationships between mood and use of alcohol for coping; the findings suggest that cross-sectional measures of mood and alcohol use may obscure differences as assessed repeatedly over time. In addition, these findings support the utility of frequent assessment of depressive symptoms when implementing or evaluating programs that target coping skills in college students.
大学生因应对压力而饮酒的行为可能会受到抑郁症状的影响。然而,由于所采用的方法各异,以及抑郁情绪可能对自我报告的准确性产生影响,这是一个颇具挑战性的研究课题。本研究聚焦于方法学问题,这些问题可能是导致在大学生群体中,关于抑郁情绪与因应对压力而饮酒之间关系的研究结果模棱两可的潜在原因。当对这些变量进行横断面研究与纵向研究时,结果可能会有所不同。
对125名大学生进行了横断面和随时间的重复评估,以测定抑郁情绪和饮酒应对情况。在基线时,使用抑郁诊断自我报告量表以及典型应对方式量表对参与者进行评估。此外,连续45天每天完成压力、抑郁症状和应对情况的测量。
将抑郁个体与非抑郁个体分开分析时,发现抑郁情绪与饮酒应对之间存在不同的关系。虽然发现每日饮酒应对与每日抑郁情绪之间存在显著相关性,但在每日饮酒应对方面,抑郁参与者与非抑郁参与者(在基线时评估)之间并无差异。
这些发现对情绪与饮酒应对之间关系的研究设计以及临床评估具有启示意义;研究结果表明,情绪和饮酒行为的横断面测量可能会掩盖随时间重复评估时所发现的差异。此外,这些发现支持在实施或评估针对大学生应对技能的项目时,频繁评估抑郁症状的实用性。