Elsevier

Addictive Behaviors

Volume 34, Issue 12, December 2009, Pages 1065-1068
Addictive Behaviors

Short communication
Alcohol use motives among traumatic event-exposed, treatment-seeking adolescents: Associations with posttraumatic stress

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2009.06.008Get rights and content

Abstract

The current study evaluated the linkage between posttraumatic stress symptoms and alcohol use motives among 49 traumatic event-exposed adolescents (Mage = 16.39 years). It was hypothesized that posttraumatic stress symptom levels would be positively associated with coping-related drinking motives specifically (cf., social, enhancement, or conformity motives) and that coping-related drinking motives would evidence associations with the hyperarousal and reexperiencing posttraumatic stress symptom types. Findings were consistent with hypotheses, suggesting traumatic event-exposed adolescents may be using alcohol to manage posttraumatic stress symptoms.

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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