Adolescent Sleep Quality and Alcohol Use: An Initial Examination of the Serial Indirect Effects of Anxiety Symptoms and Coping Motives for Alcohol Use

Abstract

Background: Insufficient sleep and insomnia are associated with alcohol use as well as anxiety during adolescence and young adulthood. A negative reinforcement path to explain the association between sleep difficulties and alcohol misuse has been proposed. Within this pathway, it is speculated that while sober, insomnia and insufficient sleep lead to increased anxiety as well as anxiolytic responses to alcohol, thereby increasing the risk for both alcohol use and alcohol use problems. No work to date has examined the negative reinforcement path to alcohol use among adolescents who have consumed alcohol. Objectives: The current study aims to address this gap in the literature by examining if sleep quality is related to adolescent alcohol use problems and frequency through serial indirect effects of adolescent anxiety symptoms and coping motives for alcohol use. A total of 147 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 years (M_age = 16.31; SD = 0.96) from all geographic regions in the US were recruited using social media platforms (i.e., Facebook and Instagram). Participants who reported having tried alcohol at least once completed self-report measures to examine sleep quality, anxiety symptoms, alcohol use problems, alcohol use frequency, and coping motives for alcohol use. Results: Adolescent sleep quality was found to be associated with higher levels of both alcohol use problems and alcohol use frequency through the serial indirect effect of anxiety symptoms and coping motives for alcohol use. Conclusions: Overall, these findings represent a step towards understanding the complex relationship between sleep quality, alcohol, anxiety, and coping motives among adolescents.

Keywords:

• Adolescents
• alcohol use
• anxiety
• sleep quality
• coping motives

Declaration of interest

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare. The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Ethical approval

The questionnaire and methodology for this study was approved by the Human Research Ethics committee of the University of Mississippi (IRB #22-006).

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Data availability statement

Data will be made available upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by a grant from the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College at the University of Mississippi awarded to Gabrielle M. Armstrong