Make it a Double: Drinking to Cope Mediates the Effect of PTSD Symptoms on Alcohol Use in University Students

Ciara A Thornett

The high prevalence of cooccurring PTSD symptoms and hazardous drinking behaviours are a notable concern within university populations and is thought to be explained by students drinking to cope with aversive symptoms of PTSD. This model is further explained by the overlap between PTSD symptom clusters, specifically arousal and negative alterations in cognition and mood (NACM), with anxiety and depression, respectively. The current study explored the 5-factor motivational model of drinking in a sample of Australian university students and examined whether the PTSD symptoms and alcohol use relationship was mediated by coping with depression motives and coping with anxiety motives in a parallel mediation model. A total of 179 students participated in an online self-report survey that assessed alcohol use, PTSD symptom severity, motivations to drink, anxiety symptoms and depression symptoms. Almost half of the sample met the criteria for probable PTSD diagnosis based on cut-off scores. Further, mediation analysis revealed that both coping with anxiety and depression motives fully mediated the relationship between PTSD symptoms and alcohol use within this sample. The findings suggest university students who experience aversive anxiety- and depression-related symptoms following a traumatic event turn to alcohol as a maladaptive coping mechanism which in turn leads to problematic drinking. Such findings add vital contributions to the current literature surrounding coping to drink motives as very few studies have assessed the 5-factor model of drinking motives. These results also emphasise the importance of assessing comorbid symptomologies in clients exposed to traumatic events and common factors across disorders.

Make it a Double: Drinking to Cope Mediates the Effect of PTSD Symptoms on Alcohol Use in University Students

Files and links (1)

Abstract

Details

Metrics