Heavy Episodic Drinking Is a Trait-State: A Cautionary Note

ABSTRACT

Background: Heavy episodic (binge) drinking is common in and problematic for undergraduates. Researchers often assume that an individual's heavy episodic drinking is stable and trait-like. However, this fails to consider fluctuating, state-like variation in heavy episodic drinking. This study proposes and tests a novel conceptualization of heavy episodic drinking as a trait-state wherein the contribution of both trait-like stability and state-like fluctuations are quantified. It was hypothesized that heavy episodic drinking is a trait-state such that individuals have trait-like tendencies to engage in heavy episodic drinking, and state-like differences in the expression of this tendency over time. Methods: A sample of 114 first-year undergraduates from a Canadian university completed self-report measures of heavy episodic drinking at 3 time points across 130 days. Hypotheses were tested with repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), test-retest correlations, and generalizability theory analyses. Results: A substantial proportion of the variance in heavy episodic drinking is attributable to trait-like stability, with a smaller proportion attributable to state-like fluctuations. Conclusions: The heavy episodic drinker seems characterized by a stable, trait-like tendency to drink in a risky manner, and this trait-like tendency seems to fluctuate in degree of expression over time. Findings complement research suggesting that people have trait-like predispositions that increase their risk for heavy episodic drinking. However, despite this stable tendency to drink heavily, the frequency of heavy episodic drinking appears to be at least partly sporadic or situation dependent. These findings serve as a caution to alcohol researchers and clinicians who often assume that a single assessment of heavy episodic drinking captures a person's usual drinking behavior.

Keywords:

• Binge drinking
• heavy episodic drinking
• longitudinal
• stability
• trait-state

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors thank Jamie Fulmore, Chantal Gautreau, Natalie Gyenes, Michelle Hicks, Anna MacKinnon, Logan Nealis, and Martin Smith for their assistance in data collection. Funding sources were not involved in the research.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

All authors contributed significantly. Aislin R. Mushquash conducted data analyses, interpretation of results, wrote the first draft and subsequent revisions of the manuscript. All co-authors were involved in writing and revising the manuscript. Simon B. Sherry, Sean P. Mackinnon, and Sherry H. Stewart were involved in the research conception and design, and Christopher J. Mushquash was involved in the interpretation of the results.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by a grant from the Dalhousie University Department of Psychiatry Research Fund awarded to Sean P. Mackinnon, Simon B. Sherry, and Michael Pratt (of Wilfrid Laurier University). This research was also supported by a grant from the Nova Scotia Health Research Fund awarded to Simon B. Sherry, Martin M. Antony (of Ryerson University), Sherry H. Stewart, and Dayna L. Sherry (of Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre). Aislin R. Mushquash and Sean P. Mackinnon were supported by a Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Sean P. Mackinnon was also supported by an honorary Izaak Walton Killam Level II Scholarship.