The influence of negative mood on solitary drinking preference: An experiment with young adult solitary drinkers

Abstract

Solitary drinking is a risk marker for alcohol use disorder; thus, it is important to identify why individuals drink alone and for whom this association is particularly relevant. Evidence suggests the desire to ameliorate negative affect (NA) motivates solitary drinking, with some individuals particularly likely to drink alone to cope, but all past studies are cross-sectional. The present study therefore aimed to determine whether 1) experimentally induced NA increased preferences to drink alcohol alone, and 2) whether the relationship between NA and choosing to drink alcohol alone was moderated by neuroticism, drinking to cope motives, and social anxiety. Current drinkers (ages 21-29) with a solitary drinking history (N=126) were randomly assigned to either NA, positive affect [PA], or no affect change (control) conditions via differing cognitive task feedback. After the mood manipulation, participants chose between drinking alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverages in one of two contexts: alone or socially. Evidence regarding effectiveness of the mood manipulation was mixed, and few chose non-alcoholic beverages in either context. Condition did not influence outcome choice. Across conditions, increases in NA and the importance placed on receiving one’s context choice were associated with solitary (versus social) alcohol preference. Neuroticism and its interaction with NA change also influenced choice; individuals high in neuroticism chose more solitary (versus social) drinking contexts while the opposite was true for those low in neuroticism, and among the latter, the preference difference was more pronounced with relatively smaller NA increases. Findings are discussed based on the existing solitary drinking literature.

Solitary-specific drinking to cope motives explain unique variance in solitary drinking behavior but not alcohol problems compared to general drinking to cope motives

“…One important limitation is that this is a cross-sectional study and thus we cannot speak to the direction of the associations. Additional longitudinal and experimental work is needed to fully understand associations between solitary drinking, coping motives, and alcohol problems (e.g., see [ 27 ] for a recent experimental investigation of drinking alone). Further, only the coping and enhancement motive subscales of the DMQ-R were modified to assess solitary-specific reasons for drinking in the current study.…”

“…Past year alcohol use quantity (standard drinks/occasion) and frequency (days/year) were measured using the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s (NIAAA) alcohol consumption question set [ 32 ] but were recoded such that higher responses indicated more frequent and heavier alcohol consumption. To assess solitary drinking, participants were asked to indicate the percentage of time that their drinking occurred while alone (i.e., “without anyone else around”) versus with others (on a 0–100% scale) in the past year (see [ 8 , 27 ]) as well as in their lifetime. As noted above, only participants who reported any drinking alone (i.e., > 1% of drinking time spent alone) in the past year were included given that results were comparable across both lifetime and past year use, but past year use aligned with the timeframe of our other alcohol consumption and alcohol problem variables.…”

“…Solitary drinking is consistently and positively associated with drinking to cope motives (e.g., [ 6 , 10 , 12 ]), even after controlling for social, enhancement, and conformity motives [ 21 , 25 , 26 ]. Additionally, in the laboratory, increases in negative affect in response to a mood manipulation predicted solitary drinking preference relative to social drinking preference among young adults with a history of drinking alone [ 27 ]. Solitary drinking is also associated with greater beliefs in alcohol’s ability to reduce negative affect [ 19 ], lower perceived ability to refuse drinking in the context of negative emotions [ 19 , 28 ], and drinking in the context of negative affect [ 8 ].…”

Language-based EMA assessments help understand problematic alcohol consumption

“…Those who report solitary alcohol use appear to do so primarily to cope with negative emotions [4,[37][38][39][40][41], a pattern of alcohol use that has been consistently linked to the development of alcohol problems [4,42,43]. Meta-analytic results show that drinking alone predicts alcohol problems cross-sectionally, although the effect size is often weak [40].…”

“…Further, the individuals who always drank with others in this sample had a significantly higher SWB than the average person. While previous research has experimentally manipulated mood before drinking [41], future research could isolate the drinking aspect of social events to see if alcohol amplifies the social event's positive impact on SWB.…”