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. 2017 Jan 2;52(1):52-62.
doi: 10.1080/10826084.2016.1214151. Epub 2016 Sep 26.

Drinking to Cope With Depressive Symptoms and Ruminative Thinking: A Multiple Mediation Model Among College Students

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

Drinking to Cope With Depressive Symptoms and Ruminative Thinking: A Multiple Mediation Model Among College Students

Adrian J Bravo et al. Subst Use Misuse. .

Abstract

Background: Understanding the potential psychosocial mechanisms that explain (i.e., mediate) the associations between depressive symptoms and alcohol-related problems can improve interventions targeting college students.

Objectives: The current research examined four distinct facets of rumination (e.g., problem-focused thoughts, counterfactual thinking, repetitive thoughts, and anticipatory thoughts) and drinking to cope motives as potential explanatory mechanisms by which depressive symptoms are associated with increased alcohol-related problems.

Method: Participants were undergraduate students from a large, southeastern university in the United States that consumed at least one drink per typical week in the previous month (n = 403). The majority of participants were female (n = 291; 72.2%), identified as being either White, non-Hispanic (n = 210; 52.1%), or African American (n = 110; 27.3%), and reported a mean age of 21.92 (SD = 5.75) years.

Results: Structural equation modeling was conducted examining the concurrent associations between depressive symptoms, rumination facets, drinking to cope motives, and alcohol-related problems (i.e., cross-sectional). There was one significant double-mediated association that suggested that increased depressive symptoms is associated with increased problem-focused thoughts, which is associated with higher drinking to cope motives and alcohol-related problems. Conclusions/Importance: Our results suggests that problem-focused thoughts at least partially explains the associations between depression and maladaptive coping (i.e., drinking to cope), which in turn is related to problematic drinking among college students. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Keywords: Alcohol-related problems; college students; depressive symptoms; drinking to cope; rumination.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Interest: We do not have any conflict of interest that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, our work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Proposed Structural Equation Model for the associations between depressive symptoms, rumination subcomponents (e.g., problem-focused thoughts, counterfactual thinking, repetitive thoughts, and anticipatory thought), drinking to cope, and alcohol-related problems.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Depicts the estimated structural equation model (n = 403). *p < .05. Female gender (-5 = men, .5 = women) was significantly positively related to problem-focused thoughts (β = .12), counter-factual thinking (β = .15), and repetitive thoughts (β = .24). However, gender was not significantly related to depressive symptoms (β = .04), anticipatory thoughts (β = .10), drinking to cope (β = -.04), and alcohol-related problems (β = .08). Alcohol use was positively related to drinking to cope (β = .32) and alcohol-related problems (β = .36). However, alcohol use was not significantly related to depressive symptoms (β = .10), problem-focused thoughts (β = .03), counter-factual thinking (β = .01), repetitive thoughts (β = .00), and anticipatory thoughts (β = .01). These paths are not shown in the figure for reasons of parsimony.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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