Posttraumatic Stress, Alcohol Use, and Alcohol Use Motives among Non-Hispanic Black/African American College Students: The Role of Emotion Regulation

Abstract

Objective

The associations between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity, alcohol use, and alcohol use motives are well-established. Emotion regulation difficulties have been implicated in the association between PTSD symptoms and alcohol use. A dearth of empirical work, however, has examined these associations among Black/African American college students, a population with high prevalence of exposure to potentially traumatic events, PTSD symptomatology, and alcohol-related consequences.

Methods

This study examined PTSD symptoms, emotion regulation difficulties, and alcohol use severity and motives among a sample of Black/African American trauma-exposed college students (N = 282; 77.4% identified as female; M age = 22.36, SD = 4.71).

Results

PTSD symptom severity was related to alcohol use and coping and conformity motives for alcohol use through heightened emotion regulation difficulties. Findings were significant above and beyond the effects of trauma load (i.e., number of potentially traumatic event types experienced).

Conclusions

This study extends past work to an understudied population and contributes to groundwork for culturally informed interventions.

Keywords:

• PTSD
• alcohol use
• motives
• emotion regulation
• Black
• African American
• college
• university students

Acknowledgements

The authors have no acknowledgements to report.

Disclosure statement

Author 5 receives book royalties from Guilford Press and Taylor and Francis. She has no financial relationships with commercial interests.

Additional information

Funding

Research reported in this publication was supported, in part, by the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health Diversity Research Supplement awarded to the first author (NIMH R01MH126586). Author 2 is supported by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Clinical Science Research and Development Service under Career Development Award-2 (IK2CX001978-02). Author 5 acknowledges that research reported in this publication was supported, in part, by the National Institutes of Health / National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Centers in Minority Institutions awarded to the University of Houston (U54MD015946). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or the Department of Veterans Affairs.