Emotional distress may increase risk for self-medication and lower risk for mood-related drinking consequences in adolescents

摘要

The current study examines indicators of emotional distress and coping that may defineudsub-populations of adolescents at risk for two potential affect-related mechanismsudunderlying substance misuse: self-medication and mood-related drinking consequences.udAlthough theory and empirical evidence point to the salience of affect-related drinking toudcurrent and future psychopathology, we have little knowledge of whether or for whomudsuch mood-related processes exist in adolescents because few studies have used methodsudthat optimally match the phenomenon to the level of analysis. Consequently, the currentudstudy uses multi-level modeling in which daily reports of negative mood and alcohol useudare nested within individuals to examine whether adolescents with more emotionaluddistress and poorer coping skills are more likely to evidence self-medication and moodrelated drinking consequences. Seventy-five adolescents participated in a multi-method, multi-reporter study in which they completed a 21-day experience sampling protocol assessing thrice daily measures of mood and daily measures of alcohol use. Results indicate that adolescents reporting greater anger are more likely to evidence self-medication. Conversely, adolescents displaying lower emotional distress and more active coping are more likely to evidence mood-related drinking consequences. Implications for identifying vulnerable sub-populations of adolescents at risk for these mechanisms of problematic alcohol use are discussed.