University of Kentucky, Department of Psychology, 106B Kastle Hall, Lexington, KY 40506, USA.
University of Kentucky, Center for Innovation in Population Health, 364 Healthy Kentucky Building, Lexington, KY 40506, USA.
Alcohol Alcohol. 2021 Oct 29;56(6):746-753. doi: 10.1093/alcalc/agab024.
Negative affect has been implicated in risk for the development of problematic drinking behavior. Furthermore, there is evidence for reciprocal relationships between negative affect and problem drinking, such that engagement in problem drinking also predicts increases in negative affect. However, affective models of risk often fail to consider affective lability-the experience of rapidly changing mood. Although affective lability appears to increase risk for problem drinking, it is unknown if this relationship persists above and beyond other affect-related constructs (e.g. depression, anxiety) and if it is reciprocal in nature. Accordingly, we used a longitudinal survey design to examine (a) if affective lability predicts problem drinking above and beyond depression and anxiety and (b) if affective lability and problem drinking demonstrate a reciprocal relationship.
First-year college students (n = 358) participated in a three wave longitudinal study. We constructed a structural equation model (SEM) of a random intercept cross-lagged panel model to test our hypotheses.
Consistent with our hypotheses, affective lability predicted increases in problem drinking while anxiety and depression did not. Problem drinking and affective lability demonstrated a reciprocal relationship in which increases in one predicted increases in the other at subsequent time points. This relationship was present beyond the predictive effects of anxiety or depression.
Affective lability appears to be an important affect-based predictor of problem drinking, and there may be a reciprocal, risk-enhancing relationship between affective lability and problem drinking.Components of negative affect, such as depression or anxiety, have been shown to predict risk for problem drinking, and vice versa. A less considered construct, affective lability, predicted problem drinking while anxiety and depression did not add any predictive power. Problem drinking and affective lability also appeared to demonstrate a reciprocal relationship.
负面情绪与出现问题性饮酒行为的风险有关。此外，有证据表明负面情绪和问题性饮酒之间存在相互关系，即参与问题性饮酒也预示着负面情绪的增加。然而，风险的情感模型通常未能考虑情感不稳定性——即情绪迅速变化的体验。尽管情感不稳定性似乎会增加出现问题性饮酒的风险，但尚不清楚这种关系是否在其他与情感相关的结构（例如抑郁、焦虑）之上持续存在，以及这种关系是否具有相互性。因此，我们使用纵向调查设计来检验：（a）情感不稳定性是否在抑郁和焦虑之外预测问题性饮酒；（b）情感不稳定性和问题性饮酒是否表现出相互关系。
一年级大学生（n=358）参加了一项三波纵向研究。我们构建了一个随机截距交叉滞后面板模型的结构方程模型（SEM）来检验我们的假设。
与我们的假设一致，情感不稳定性预测了问题性饮酒的增加，而焦虑和抑郁则没有。问题性饮酒和情感不稳定性表现出相互关系，即一个的增加预示着随后时间点另一个的增加。这种关系存在于焦虑或抑郁的预测作用之外。
情感不稳定性似乎是问题性饮酒的一个重要基于情感的预测因素，情感不稳定性和问题性饮酒之间可能存在相互增强风险的关系。负面情绪的组成部分，如抑郁或焦虑，已被证明可预测出现问题性饮酒的风险，反之亦然。一个不太被考虑的结构，情感不稳定性，预测了问题性饮酒，而焦虑和抑郁则没有增加任何预测能力。问题性饮酒和情感不稳定性似乎也表现出相互关系。
