Alcohol consumption in a time of macrosocial stress: Migration, social isolation, and anger as risk factors

Abstract

A three-wave panel study was conducted to monitor psychosocial changes in East Germans during a disturbing political transition when the communist system collapsed. Two hundred and fourteen East Germans who migrated to West Berlin in 1989 were studied for two years and compared to 224 East Germans in Saxonia who did not migrate. The general research question of the present analysis was to what degree life changes were reflected by changes in alcohol consumption. Women drank almost no alcohol, whereas men unveiled disparate drinking habits depending on various risk factors. Migrating men reduced their alcohol consumption after resettlement. Having an intimate partner or spouse was associated with less drinking in the subsample of those who stayed behind. Trait anger emerged as a risk factor, except for men after resettlement. The data are discussed in terms of coping and adaptation during stressful life challenges.

Key Words:

• alcohol consumption
• anger
• social integration
• stress
• life transition
• coping/adaptation