Heavy drinking from the freshman year into early young adulthood: The roles of stress, tension-reduction drinking motives, gender and personality

Objective: This study investigated the relationship between stress (defined alternatively as negative life events and emotional distress) and heavy drinking across late adolescence and early young adulthood, as well as the roles of tension-reduction drinking motives and gender as moderators of that relationship. The role of personality variables (neuroticism, behavioral undercontrol and extraversion) as moderators also was explored. Method: The data were obtained from 485 individuals (255 women) participating in a five-wave longitudinal study that spanned 7 years. The effects on heavy drinking of stress (either negative life events or emotional distress), tension-reduction drinking motives, gender and personality were analyzed each year with hierarchical multiple regression. Results: Stress (negative life events) was positively related to heavy drinking, but only for men with stronger tension-reduction drinking motives at Year 4 (age 21). The relationship between tension-reduction drinking motives and heavy drinking was positive, developmentally graded. and moderated by gender; after the freshman year, the role of tension-reduction drinking motives in heavy drinking became less important for women, relative to men, a trend that grew stronger after the college years. Behavioral undercontrol played a limited role in the relationship of gender and tension-reduction drinking motives to heavy drinking. Conclusions: The findings have implications for theories of stress-related and stress-motivated drinking. Such theories should consider developmental processes, particularly the transition to adult drinking status at age 21 and the roles of tension-reduction drinking motives, gender and behavioral undercontrol.