Schelleman-Offermans Karen, Sasso Alessandro, Massar Karlijn, Teixeira Cátia Pinto
Department of Work and Social Psychology, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200MD Maastricht, the Netherlands.
Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission, Via Enrico Fermi 2749-21027, Ispra (VA), Italy.
Alcohol Alcohol. 2025 Mar 25;60(3). doi: 10.1093/alcalc/agaf012.
Empirical evidence of the buffering effect of social capital and its underlying psychosocial mechanisms on socio-economic inequalities in alcohol use disorder (AUD) symptoms is limited. As socio-economic disadvantages often go together with deficits in resources and considering social capital's beneficial effects on health, we hypothesized a stronger buffering (at high scores) and a cumulative disadvantaged effect (at low scores) of social capital on AUD symptoms among people reporting higher socio-economic disadvantage compared with their more advantaged counterparts. Additionally, we investigated whether this moderation effect was associated with drinking motives.
Three-hundred and sixty-five young adults participated in a cross-sectional online questionnaire measuring all model variables. First, we tested a moderation model, including AUD symptoms (DV), perceived socio-economic disadvantage (IV), and social capital (moderator). Secondly, we tested a moderated mediation model, additionally including drinking motives as mediators of the moderation effect tested in the first model.
In the case of high social capital, young adults reporting higher socio-economic disadvantage reported fewer AUD symptoms than their advantaged counterparts, which was associated with their lower endorsement of coping, enhancement, and social motives. When social capital was low, those reporting higher socio-economic disadvantages showed higher AUD symptoms than their advantaged counterparts, which was associated with their higher endorsement of coping motives only.
Social capital can buffer (at high levels) or aggravate (at low levels) socio-economic inequalities in AUD symptoms, and drinking for coping, enhancement, and social motives may explain why this happens.
社会资本的缓冲效应及其潜在心理社会机制对酒精使用障碍（AUD）症状社会经济不平等影响的实证证据有限。由于社会经济劣势往往伴随着资源匮乏，并且考虑到社会资本对健康的有益影响，我们假设与社会经济条件更优越的同龄人相比，社会资本对报告社会经济劣势较高人群的AUD症状具有更强的缓冲作用（在高分时）和累积劣势效应（在低分 时）。此外，我们研究了这种调节效应是否与饮酒动机有关。
365名年轻人参与了一项测量所有模型变量的横断面在线问卷调查。首先，我们测试了一个调节模型，包括AUD症状（因变量）、感知到的社会经济劣势（自变量）和社会资本（调节变量）。其次，我们测试了一个有调节的中介模型，另外将饮酒动机作为第一个模型中测试的调节效应的中介变量。
在社会资本水平较高的情况下，报告社会经济劣势较高的年轻人比社会经济条件优越的同龄人报告的AUD症状更少，这与他们对应对、增强和社交动机的较低认可度有关。当社会资本水平较低时，报告社会经济劣势较高的人比社会经济条件优越的同龄人表现出更高的AUD症状，这仅与他们对应对动机的较高认可度有关。
社会资本可以缓冲（在高水平时）或加剧（在低水平时）AUD症状的社会经济不平等，而出于应对、增强和社交动机饮酒可能解释了这种情况发生的原因。
