The Stress-Buffering Role of Alcohol Consumption: The Importance of Symptom Dimension

Abstract

This paper examines the possibility of the existence of stress-buffering properties of alcohol consumption suggested by a recent study¹ in which life events were related to depressive symptoms for abstainers and heavy drinkers but not for moderate drinkers. Survey data on affective and somatic symptoms from 364 urban and 333 rural Florida residents indicated some support for the buffering argument. Moderate and heavy drinkers manifested significantly lower levels of symptoms than did abstainers only with regard to somatic symptoms. Life event-drinking pattern interactions did not reach statistical significance, although trends consistent with the buffering hypothesis were obtained with the somatic symptom measure. Implications of the data are explored.

Index Terms:

• life change
• alcohol consumption
• psychological distress
• stress-buffer effects