The role of positive affect in the association between stress and college student alcohol use

Abstract

Objective

To examine the associations among stress, positive affect, binge drinking, and coping drinking motives.

Participants

Students (n = 351, M_age=19.7, 74.6% female) at a northeastern public university.

Methods

Participants completed an online survey assessing perceived stress, frequency of experiencing positive emotions, frequency of binge drinking, and coping drinking motives.

Results

Stress and positive emotions were not significantly related to frequency of binge drinking but were significantly correlated with coping motives for drinking. Regression analyses with all predictors, age, and gender in the model revealed the same: stress and positive emotion were not significantly related to binge drinking but were significantly related to coping motives. The interaction between stress and positive emotions predicting frequency of binge drinking or coping motives was nonsignificant.

Conclusions

Findings suggest the utility of exploring positive emotions in risk and resilience research focused on college student drinking and of targeting positive emotions to decrease students’ coping-related alcohol use.

Keywords:

• Alcohol use
• binge drinking
• college students
• drinking motives
• positive affect

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 the United States and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of The University of Rhode Island.

Notes

1 While it was not an a priori aim of the present study, we examined an additional linear regression model to follow-up on the significant bivariate correlation observed between frequency of positive affect and frequency of alcohol consumption. When entered into a model with age, gender, and perceived stress, frequency of positive affect was no longer significantly associated with frequency of alcohol consumption (b = -.60, SE = .44, β = -.10, t = -1.38, p = .17, 95%CI [-1.46, .26]).

Additional information

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.