Personality and Drinking Behavior in Alcohol Dependence: A Survival Analysis

Abstract

Baseline levels of Five-Factor personality Neuroticism and Conscientiousness have been shown to predict clinician-assessed relapse in individuals with alcohol dependence, with high Neuroticism and low Conscientiousness increasing risk for relapse. These findings were reexamined with a behaviorally based, temporally-precise outcome measure (first heavy drinking date after baseline) utilizing the drinking data of a diverse treatment sample of 364 alcohol-dependent individuals over 2-year follow-up. Survival analysis results failed to replicate Neuroticism and Conscientiousness as univariate predictors of drinking behavior over time but found support for the effect of Neuroticism in a multivariate model of clinical and demographic predictors. Other Five-Factor personality factors were tested in exploratory analyses. Implications of the findings are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Five-Factor personality
• drinking behavior
• relapse
• survival analysis

Notes

The research reported was a secondary analysis of an NIAA-funded (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) study (5R01AA014442). Portions of this research were presented at the 2009 APA Convention Division 50 and NIAAA/NIDA Early Career poster sessions. We acknowledge the contributions of James Hansell, Daniel Brickman, Bin Nan, and Ken Guire at the University of Michigan.

^aThe maximum number of SCID alcohol dependence symptoms is 7.

^aSample means are significantly different from the Costa and McCrae (1992) normed means for all factors (p's < .001).

**

^aHypothesized effects.

^aWhole model effect: χ²(12, 364) = 83.82, p < 0.001.

^bSelf-reported motivation for abstinence from drinking at baseline.

^cExcluded from statistical analyses using control model.