Differential Momentary Reports of Stress and Affect Associated With Alcohol Consumption in Middle-Aged Versus Younger Adults

Abstract

Background: Stress is a motivator to consume alcohol, a well-documented relapse risk, and is known to differentially affect biological and psychological processes as people age.

Objectives: Because alcohol consumption is known to acutely decrease stress and increase affect, this study examined differences in ratings of stress and affect in middle-aged versus younger adults who regularly consume alcohol.

Methods: A sample of younger (n = 17) and middle-aged (n = 18) drinkers was studied during a 3-day period of typical alcohol consumption. Resting levels of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were measured during a baseline study visit since RSA is a well-documented biomarker of stress and is known to decrease with age. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) survey ratings (n = 1,598) were modeled using hierarchical regression to assess differences in stress and affect throughout the day between the two age groups.

Results: As anticipated, middle-aged participants had lower RSA than those who were younger. Although the middle-aged adults showed overall lower stress, generally they also experienced higher affect than the younger adults. Middle-aged adults experienced a significant reduction in stress following drinking while no such effect was observed in the younger adults.

Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first investigation using EMA methodology to examine stress and affect between younger and middle-aged adults who habitually consume alcohol. These cross-sectional data suggest potential momentary stress relief to engaging with moderate alcohol consumption in a middle-aged population. Future work must address this important motivational process in curtailing maintenance of alcohol consumption and preventing escalation of consumption.

Keywords:

• Alcohol
• stress
• affect
• age
• EMA
• RSA
• hierarchical modeling
• young adults
• middle-aged adults

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.