Is shame a proximal trigger for drinking? A daily process study with a community sample.

Abstract

Between-subjects studies show that people with higher levels of shame tend to experience more negative drinking-related consequences than people with lower levels of shame. However, within-subjects studies of the association between daily fluctuations in shame and subsequent drinking have yielded mixed findings. This study aimed to resolve these inconsistencies by examining the association between daily fluctuations in shame, between-subjects differences in shame, and subsequent evening alcohol consumption in a sample of 70 community-dwelling drinkers. In addition, we examined whether the previous night's drinking predicted shame the next day based on the theory that shame may operate in a cyclical fashion in some people to maintain problematic drinking patterns. Multilevel model analyses showed a cross-level interaction in which individuals' average levels of ashamed mood moderated the effect of daily fluctuations in shame on solitary drinking. In contrast, previous day's drinking was only weakly related to shame the next day. This study contributes to existing literature by refining models of negative mood-related drinking and further elucidating the patterns by which shame serves as a trigger for drinking, particularly among high shame individuals. The authors interpret results in terms of self-control theory and demonstrate the importance of disaggregating between- and within-subjects variance when examining longitudinal data. (PsycINFO Database Record

The contexts of heavy drinking: A systematic review of the combinations of context-related factors associated with heavy drinking occasions

“…Negative or positive states of mood were found to be associated with heavier or lighter drinking depending on the individual’s traits and environmental characteristics that these emotions are combined with [57, 61, 63, 72, 82, 86, 93]. Heavy drinking is particularly likely to occur on days when a lot of negative emotion or negative interpersonal events are experienced for individuals who are socially anxious [80], have low self-esteem, high shame or high neuroticism [54, 73, 77], have high social support [43], are less educated [61], have high drinking-to-cope motives [78, 82] or have low drinking to conform motives [78]. In contrast, studies suggested that people with low shame [73], non-students [86], students not affiliated with a sorority [72], men with low attention spans [57] and women with high attention spans [57] are less likely to engage in heavy drinking on days they have negative mood.…”

“…Heavy drinking is particularly likely to occur on days when a lot of negative emotion or negative interpersonal events are experienced for individuals who are socially anxious [80], have low self-esteem, high shame or high neuroticism [54, 73, 77], have high social support [43], are less educated [61], have high drinking-to-cope motives [78, 82] or have low drinking to conform motives [78]. In contrast, studies suggested that people with low shame [73], non-students [86], students not affiliated with a sorority [72], men with low attention spans [57] and women with high attention spans [57] are less likely to engage in heavy drinking on days they have negative mood. Also, individuals with low social anxiety or low drinking to cope motives tend to drink less on days they experience negative interpersonal interactions [78, 80].…”

Experiential avoidance and negative affect as predictors of daily drinking.

“…In other words, social drinking may more often serve to increase positive mood or be triggered by external cues compared to solitary drinking such as in O'Donnelly et al (2019) who found, in a sample of students, that being around peers who were drinking was much more powerfully associated with drinking outcomes than mood. Prior studies of mood-drinking relationships tend to find stronger relationships between negative mood and solitary drinking than between negative mood and social drinking (e.g., Arpin et al, 2015;Luoma et al, 2018;Mohr et al, 2001;Mohr et al, 2010;Mohr, Brannan, Mohr, Armeli, & Tennen, 2008;O'Connell et al, 2019). Differing associations across solitary versus social drinking are also consistent with the view that it is important to consider the social context of drinking when considering alcohol's effects (Sayette, 2017;Stevenson et al, 2019).…”

“…empirically as some studies have shown that within-person and between-person associations with alcohol consumption can differ (Dvorak & Simons, 2014;Luoma, Guinther, DesJardins, & Vilardaga, 2018;Simons et al, 2014).…”

Don’t miss the forest for the trees: New recommendations for exploiting guilt and shame in self‐control conflicts

“…For example, drinkers’ limit violations were found to result in more subsequent drinking, and this effect was mediated by increased negative self‐conscious emotions (Muraven et al., 2005). Shame triggers drinkers to consume alcohol, especially among individuals who experience a high level of shame (Luoma et al., 2018). Interviewing smokers by telephone at 1, 2, and 3 months after treatment, Baer et al.…”