Pregaming and Emotion Regulation’s Relationship to Alcohol Problems in College Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

ABSTRACT

Background: Pregaming is a high-risk drinking behavior associated with increased alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems. Quantity of alcohol consumed does not fully explain the level of problems associated with pregaming; yet, limited research has examined factors that may interact with pregaming behavior to contribute to the experience of alcohol-related problems. Objectives: The current study examined whether use of two emotion regulation strategies influence pregaming’s contribution to alcohol-related problems. Methods: Undergraduates (N = 1857) aged 18–25 years attending 19 different colleges completed an online survey in 2008–2009. Linear mixed models were used to test whether emotion regulation strategies moderate the association between pregaming status (pregamers vs. non/infrequent pregamers) and alcohol-related problems, when controlling for alcohol consumption, demographic covariates, and site as a random effect. Results: Greater use of cognitive reappraisal was associated with decreased alcohol problems. Expressive suppression interacted with pregaming status. There was no relationship between pregaming status and alcohol problems for students who rarely used expression suppression; however, the relationship between pregaming status and alcohol problems was statistically significant for students who occasionally to frequently used expression suppression. Conclusions/Importance: Findings suggest that the relationship between pregaming and alcohol-related problems is complex. Accordingly, future studies should utilize event-level methodology to understand how emotion regulation strategies influence alcohol-related problems. Further, clinicians should tailor alcohol treatments to help students increase their use of cognitive reappraisal and decrease their use of suppression.

KEYWORDS:

• Pregaming
• emotion regulation
• alcohol
• alcohol-related problems
• college students
• suppression
• cognitive reappraisal

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Melissa M. Norberg

Melissa M. Norberg, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Macquarie University, as well as the Deputy Director of the Centre for Emotional Health. Her current research focuses on examining factors and processes that contribute to the etiology and maintenance of anxiety and substance use problems. She is particularly interested in understanding what emotions and feelings (e.g., cravings, anxiety, and fear) contribute to avoidance and how to increase tolerance to these experiences in order to reduce problematic substance use and anxiety.

Lindsay S. Ham

Lindsay S. Ham, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychological Science at the University of Arkansas. Dr. Ham’s program of research focuses on problem substance use and the intersection between alcohol use and anxiety, violence, or social information processing.

Jake Olivier

Jake Olivier, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Statistics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at The University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. His research interests are focused on statistical methods applied to epidemiological, psychological and population health data. His current research interests are in improving methods for assessing population-based interventions, the development of operationally defined effect sizes for risk measures commonly used in epidemiology, and the inter-relatedness of effect size measures.

Byron L. Zamboanga

Byron L. Zamboanga, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at Smith College. His research examines cognitive, social, and cultural correlates of risky drinking practices among adolescents and young adults.

Alexander Melkonian

Alexander Melkonian, M.A., is currently a graduate student in the clinical psychology Ph.D. program at the University of Arkansas. Working with Dr. Lindsay Ham, Alex’s research interests are focused on the effects of alcohol intoxication on social information processing in the context of alcohol related sexual assault.

Jessica L. Fugitt

Jessica L. Fugitt, M.A., is a doctoral candidate in clinical Psychology at the University of Arkansas, currently completing a pre-doctoral internship at the Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center. Ms. Fugitt’s program of research focuses on the influence of gender on mental health outcomes, specifically substance use and trauma related coping.