Abstract
IntroductionHeavy drinking is a considerable public health concern. There is a broad evidence-base examining the separate contributions of personality characteristics, motives and alcohol-expectancies on subsequent alcohol use to identify those at risk. However, little is known about the complex relationships by which these variables may interact to predict drinking behavior. Feelings of hopelessness and anxiety sensitivity are hypothesized to be distal predictors of alcohol use, with outcome expectancies and drinking motives more proximal. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to examine whether hopelessness and anxiety sensitivity influenced alcohol use via drinking to cope and alcohol - outcome expectancies. MethodsWe recruited 230 participants to complete an online questionnaire consisting of the brief drinking motives questionnaire, the Substance Use Risk Profile scale and Brief Comprehensive Effects of Alcohol scale. We conducted path analyses using structural equation modelling. ResultsWe demonstrated a significant direct effect of anxiety sensitivity on alcohol use, and a significant serial indirect effect of hopelessness through coping motives and alcohol outcome expectancies. ConclusionsThese findings suggest feelings of hopelessness may predict alcohol consumption through a complex pathway and future research should use these findings to identify individuals at risk of increased alcohol use.
Highlights
Heavy drinking is a considerable public health concern
There was no direct effect of hopelessness on alcohol misuse, hopelessness was associated with coping motives (p b 0.001)
There was a significant indirect effect of hopelessness on alcohol use
Summary
Heavy drinking is a considerable public health concern. There is a broad evidence-base examining the separate contributions of personality characteristics, motives and alcohol-expectancies on subsequent alcohol use to identify those at risk. A considerable amount of research has demonstrated that certain personality traits are associated with elevated alcohol use, for example, impulsivity (a tendency to act without thinking; (Dawe, Gullo, & Loxton, 2004)) and neuroticism (a tendency to feel psychological distress including anxiety and depression; (Costa & McCrae, 1992). As well as these non-substance-specific traits, measures of specific substance-related dispositions have been developed to improve our understanding of the individual differences that may contribute to alcohol use. This model predicts that each personality risk factor is related to specific drinking motives (Mackinnon, Kehayes, Clark, Sherry, & Stewart, 2014) and precise patterns of substance use, as well as certain psychopathological disorders (Castellanos-Ryan & Conrod, 2012)
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