Minneapolis Veterans Affairs, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2022 Oct;46(10):1913-1924. doi: 10.1111/acer.14933. Epub 2022 Sep 16.
Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies have provided conflicting evidence for the mood regulation tenet that people drink in response to positive and negative moods. The current study examined mood-to-alcohol relationships idiographically to quantify the prevalence and intensity of relationships between positive and negative moods and drinking across individuals.
We used two EMA samples: 96 heavy drinking college students (sample 1) and 19 young adults completing an ecological momentary intervention (EMI) for drinking to cope (sample 2). Mood and alcohol use were measured multiple times per day for 4-6 weeks. Mood-alcohol relationships were examined using three different analytic approaches: standard multilevel modeling, group causal modeling, and idiographic causal modeling.
Both multilevel modeling and group causal modeling showed that participants in both samples drank in response to positive moods only. However, idiographic causal analyses revealed that only 63% and 21% of subjects (in samples 1 and 2, respectively) drank following any positive mood. Many subjects (24% and 58%) did not drink in response to either positive or negative mood in their daily lives, and very few (5% and 16%) drank in response to negative moods throughout the EMA protocol, despite sample 2 being selected specifically because they endorse drinking to cope with negative mood.
Traditional group-level analyses and corresponding population-wide theories assume relative homogeneity within populations in mood-alcohol relationships, but this nomothetic approach failed to characterize accurately the relationship between mood and alcohol use in approximately half of the subjects in two samples that were demographically and clinically homogeneous. Given inconsistent findings in the mood-alcohol relationships to date, we conclude that idiographic causal analyses can provide a foundation for more accurate theories of mood and alcohol use. In addition, idiographic causal models may also help improve psychosocial treatments through direct use in clinical settings.
生态瞬时评估（EMA）研究为人们根据积极和消极情绪来调节情绪的观点提供了相互矛盾的证据。本研究通过个体分析来检查情绪与酒精的关系，以量化个体之间积极和消极情绪与饮酒之间关系的普遍性和强度。
我们使用了两个 EMA 样本：96 名重度饮酒的大学生（样本 1）和 19 名完成应对性饮酒生态瞬时干预（EMI）的年轻人（样本 2）。情绪和酒精使用在 4-6 周内每天多次测量。使用三种不同的分析方法来检查情绪-酒精关系：标准多层建模、群组因果建模和个体因果建模。
多层建模和群组因果建模都表明，两个样本的参与者都仅在积极情绪时饮酒。然而，个体因果分析显示，只有 63%和 21%的受试者（分别在样本 1 和 2 中）在任何积极情绪后饮酒。许多受试者（24%和 58%）在日常生活中没有对积极或消极情绪做出反应，尽管样本 2 是专门选择的，因为他们表示通过饮酒来应对消极情绪，但只有 5%和 16%的人在整个 EMA 期间对消极情绪做出反应。
传统的群体水平分析和相应的总体理论假设在情绪-酒精关系中人群具有相对同质性，但这种理论方法未能准确描述两个样本中大约一半受试者的情绪和酒精使用之间的关系，这两个样本在人口统计学和临床方面是同质的。鉴于迄今为止情绪与酒精关系的不一致发现，我们得出结论，个体因果分析可以为更准确的情绪和酒精使用理论提供基础。此外，个体因果模型也可以通过直接在临床环境中使用来帮助改善心理社会治疗。
