Emotion regulation strategies moderate the impact of negative affect induction on alcohol craving in college drinkers: an experimental paradigm

Abstract

Objectives: Observational studies suggest emotion regulation (ER) as a potential treatment target for problematic college drinking. The primary aim of this laboratory study was to determine whether trait ER strategies would moderate the impact of negative affect induction on alcohol craving in college drinkers. Methods: Participants were randomly assigned to a neutral (n = 74) or a negative affect induction (n = 76) and reported their craving after the affect inductions. Results: Greater use of drinking to cope and less use of cognitive reappraisal predicted greater alcohol craving after the negative affect induction, but not after the neutral condition. In contrast, emotion suppression did not predict alcohol craving in either condition. Conclusion: Our results highlight the role of ER tendencies—particularly the benefits of cognitive reappraisal—on alcohol craving when experiencing emotional distress. Therefore, ER strategies may be an important target for college drinkers to prevent and reduce problematic drinking.

Keywords:

• Alcohol craving
• cognitive reappraisal
• college drinking
• drinking to cope
• emotion regulation

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the Texas A&M University.

Additional information

Funding

Preparation of this article was funded by the NIH NRSA NIAAA (1F31AA023709), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) (K23 DA048972), and Dissertation Enhancement Award from College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University to the first author and Texas A&M University research support to the corresponding author.