The many faces of affect: a multilevel model of drinking frequency/quantity and alcohol dependence symptoms among young adults

Abstract

This research tested a multilevel structural equation model of associations between 3 aspects of affective functioning (state affect, trait affect, and affective lability) and 3 alcohol outcomes (likelihood of drinking, quantity on drinking days, and dependence symptoms) in a sample of 263 college students. Participants provided 49 days of experience sampling data over 1.3 years in a longitudinal burst design. Within-person results: At the daily level, positive affect was directly associated with greater likelihood and quantity of alcohol consumption. Daily negative affect was directly associated with higher consumption on drinking days and with higher dependence symptoms. Between-person direct effects: Affect lability was associated with higher trait negative, but not positive, affect. Trait positive affect was inversely associated with the proportion of drinking days, whereas negative affectivity predicted a greater proportion of drinking days. Affect lability exhibited a direct association with dependence symptoms. Between-person indirect effects: Trait positive affect was associated with fewer dependence symptoms via proportion of drinking days. Trait negative affect was associated with greater dependence symptoms via proportion of drinking days. The results distinguish relations of positive and negative affect to likelihood versus amount of drinking and state versus trait drinking outcomes, and highlight the importance of affect variability for predicting alcohol dependence symptoms.

Figure 1

Conceptual model of hypothesized between- and within-person relationships.

Figure 2

Conceptual MSEM depicting the within- and between-person effects. The figure illustrates that repeated measures of affect and alcohol outcomes are decomposed into latent trait (between) and state (within) components. The between-person lability variable is also estimated from the repeated measures data. For clarity, a simplified model omitting additional hypothesized effects and covariates is depicted.

Figure 3

Multilevel structural model depicting key within-person and between-person effects. Note. Unstandardized coefficients. Affect reflects mood during the daytime. Alcohol use and dependence symptoms reflect behavior during the nighttime. "State" refers to factors varying within-person across time and "trait" signifies dispositional characteristics. Between-person covariates are omitted. N = 263 persons, 9562 person-days. Alcohol consumption coefficients above the horizontal line are for the count portion and below are the zero-inflation portion (e.g., abstaining). *p < .05, ** p < .01, ***p < .001