Trauma exposure, alcohol consumption, and sleep quality: a latent growth curve model

Abstract

This study examined the relations among precollege trauma exposure, alcohol use upon entering college, growth in alcohol use, and sleep quality in a sample of undergraduate students. Participants were 932 students from a large, urban, public university. Participants completed a survey upon entering college and then subsequent follow-up surveys each Spring semester. Precollege trauma exposure was associated with both baseline and growth in alcohol use, whereby higher levels of trauma were associated with higher baseline alcohol use, but with less steep increases in growth rate, as compared to those with lower levels of trauma. Baseline alcohol use was associated with sleep quality whereby those with higher levels of consumption demonstrated worsened sleep quality. This study provides longitudinal evidence for the relations among trauma, alcohol use, and sleep quality. Although the relationship between trauma and alcohol is well-established, further work is needed to identify how this relationship impacts additional health outcomes.

Keywords:

• Alcohol
• college
• sleep quality
• trauma

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Virginia Commonwealth University.

Additional information

Funding

Spit for Science has been supported by Virginia Commonwealth University, P20 AA017828, R37AA011408, K02AA018755, P50 AA022537, and K01AA024152 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), and UL1RR031990 from the National Center for Research Resources and National Institutes of Health Roadmap for Medical Research. This research was also supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Award Number U54DA036105 and the Center for Tobacco Products of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of the NIH or the FDA. Data from this study are available to qualified researchers via dbGaP (phs001754.v2.p1). We would like to thank the Spit for Science participants for making this study a success, as well as the many University faculty, students, and staff who contributed to the design and implementation of the project. Preparation of this manuscript was supported in part by F31AA027703-02 from the NIAAA (Cusack), K01AA028058-01 (Bountress), and K02AA023239 (Amstadter) from the NIAAA. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.