Adolescent drinking and adolescent stress: a domain-specific relationship in Northern Irish schoolchildren

Abstract

Previous research has suggested an association between heightened levels of stress among adolescents and reduced levels of mental, physical and emotional well-being. This study sought to examine the relationship between 10 domains of adolescent stress and self-reported drinking behaviour. A total of 610 adolescents, aged 12–16 years old, were recruited from high schools in Northern Ireland. In addition to completing questionnaires on drinking behaviour and stress, participants completed questionnaires assessing self-esteem and three domains of self-efficacy. Bivariate results suggested that more problematic drinking was associated with higher levels of stress in 9 out of 10 stress domains. More fully controlled regression analyses revealed a domain-specific relationship between stress and drinking behaviour such that more problematic drinking was associated with more self-reported stress from home life, school attendance and financial pressure, but lower stress from peer pressure and school performance. These results suggest that it is a combination of a heightened occurrence of some stressors and a lower occurrence of others that is associated with more problematic drinking among adolescents. Future prospective research might investigate to what extent these relationships precede and therefore help predict adolescent drinking.

Keywords:

• stress
• adolescent alcohol use
• self-efficacy
• self-esteem

Notes

1. For example, guidance from the Chief Medical Officer for England (2009) highlighted age 15 as a minimum threshold and after age 15 the recommendation is for the infrequent consumption of low strength drinks, however no unit-based threshold was set.