Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Jul;77(4):661-6.
doi: 10.15288/jsad.2016.77.661.

Depressive Symptoms and Alcohol-Related Problems Among College Students: A Moderated-Mediated Model of Mindfulness and Drinking to Cope

Adrian J Bravo  1 , Matthew R Pearson  2 , Leah E Stevens  1 , James M Henson  1
Affiliations

Depressive Symptoms and Alcohol-Related Problems Among College Students: A Moderated-Mediated Model of Mindfulness and Drinking to Cope

Adrian J Bravo et al. J Stud Alcohol Drugs. 2016 Jul.

Abstract

Objective: In college student samples, the association between depressive symptoms and alcohol-related problems has been found to be mediated by drinking-to-cope motives. Mindfulness-based interventions suggest that mindfulness may attenuate the conditioned response of using substances in response to negative emotional states, and trait mindfulness has been shown to be a protective factor associated with experiencing fewer alcohol-related problems. In the present study, we examined trait mindfulness as a moderator of the indirect associations of depressive symptoms on alcohol-related problems via drinking-to-cope motives.

Method: Participants were undergraduate students at a large, southeastern university in the United States who drank at least once in the previous month (n = 448). Participants completed an online survey regarding their personal mental health, coping strategies, trait mindfulness, and alcohol use behaviors. The majority of participants were female (n = 302; 67.4%), identified as being either White non-Hispanic (n = 213; 47.5%) or African American (n = 119; 26.6%), and reported a mean age of 22.74 (SD = 6.81) years. Further, 110 (25%) participants reported having a previous and/or current experience with mindfulness mediation.

Results: As hypothesized, the indirect effects from depressive symptoms to alcohol-related problems via drinking-to-cope motives were weaker among individuals reporting higher levels of mindfulness than among individuals reporting lower and average levels of mindfulness.

Conclusions: The present study suggests a possible mechanism through which mindfulness-based interventions may be efficacious among college students: decoupling the associations between depressive symptoms and drinking-to-cope motives.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Depicts standardized relationships in the moderated-mediation model (n = 448). Gender did not significantly predict to drinking to cope (β = -.08) and alcohol-related problems (β = .07). Alcohol use did significantly predict to drinking to cope (β = .15) and alcohol-related problems (β = .35). These paths are not shown in the figure for reasons of parsimony. *p < .05; ***p < .001.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Armeli S., Conner T. S., Cullum J., Tennen H. A longitudinal analysis of drinking motives moderating the negative affect-drinking association among college students. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. 2010;24:38–47. doi:10.1037/a0017530. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Baer R. A., Smith G. T., Hopkins J., Krietemeyer J., Toney L. Using self-report assessment methods to explore facets of mindfulness. Assessment. 2006;13:27–45. doi:10.1177/1073191105283504. - PubMed
    1. Bayram N., Bilgel N. The prevalence and socio-demographic correlations of depression, anxiety and stress among a group of university students. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. 2008;43:667–672. doi:10.1007/s00127-008-0345-x. - PubMed
    1. Bowen S., Chawla N., Collins S. E., Witkiewitz K., Hsu S., Grow J., Marlatt A. Mindfulness-based relapse prevention for substance use disorders: A pilot efficacy trial. Substance Abuse. 2009;30:295–305. doi:10.1080/08897070903250084. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bravo A. J., Henson J. M., Pearson M. R. Understanding the role of alcohol as a coping mechanism among college students: A review of drinking to cope motives. 2016. Manuscript submitted for publication.