Short communicationAlcohol use motives among traumatic event-exposed, treatment-seeking adolescents: Associations with posttraumatic stress
Section snippets
Participants
Forty-nine participants were drawn from a larger study of treatment-seeking adolescents between the ages of 14 and 17 years (Mage = 16.39; SD = .84) enrolled in group-based residential therapy. Participants were selected from a larger sample of 191 participants if they reported both exposure to a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual — Fourth Edition [DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association (APA), 1994]-defined traumatic event and having used alcohol at least once. The majority of participants were
Descriptive data and zero-order relations
Table 1 includes means, standard deviations, and inter-correlations for the continuous primary predictor and criterion variables. There were no gender differences on the DMQ-R scales or in the drinking-related variables. Significant gender differences were observed for CPSS scores, with girls (M = 11.17; SD = 8.22) endorsing significantly greater posttraumatic stress symptom levels compared to boys (M = 5.62; SD = 8.64).
Primary hypothesis tests
Hierarchical regression analysis was utilized to address study hypotheses with
Discussion
As expected, posttraumatic stress symptom levels related positively to coping-related drinking motives. This medium-sized effect (Cohen, 1988) was significant after accounting for past-month alcohol use, age, gender, as well as other drinking motives. Further, a specificity effect was observed, such that symptoms were unrelated to conformity, enhancement, or social drinking motives. These data are consistent with the “self-medication” hypothesis, suggesting that youth exposed to a traumatic
Disclosure statement
None of the authors has any conflicts of interest to report that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work on this manuscript.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the study participants, Aspen Education Group, and several key research personnel, including Dr. Sheneen Daniels, Carolina Barreto, Hillary Farrell, Sara Goodrum, Taylor Sorrows, Ilene Thompson, Megan Trammell, and Jennifer White, without whom this study could not have been completed.
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