Unravelling reciprocal effects among young adults’ binge drinking, stress, and anticipated regret

Kathryn Modecki, Daniel J. Phipps, Anita Cox, Natalie J. Loxton, Kyra Hamilton, Neil Caton, Melissa Elwin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Problematic alcohol consumption represents a critical risk to young adults’ mental and physical health (WHO, 2018). As a result, understanding negative consequences that stem from young adults’ binge drinking and inter-related factors that may mitigate increases in binge drinking has much to offer scholars and practitioners. In the current study, a two-wave random intercept cross-lagged panel design was used to examine the reciprocal inter-relations among stress, anticipated regret, and binge drinking within a lab-based study of young adults (N = 109, Mage = 19.85). Within-person findings indicated that high life stress and low anticipated regret predicted subsequent increases in binge drinking three months later, accounting for between-person stability in these constructs. All told, findings point to life stress as a robust predictor of increased binge drinking, and anticipated regret as a protective factor associated with reductions in binge drinking among young adults. Given that anticipated regret signalled subsequent drinking reductions, future research should consider ways to foreground anticipation of regret as a protective factor mitigating binge drinking increases.

Original languageEnglish
Article number107432
JournalAddictive Behaviors
Volume135
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2022
Externally publishedYes

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