Date of Graduation

8-2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Psychology (MA)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Psychological Science

Advisor/Mentor

Ham, Lindsay S.

Committee Member

Lohr, Jeffrey M.

Second Committee Member

Leen-Feldner, Ellen W.

Keywords

Acceptance; Alcohol; Anxiety sensitivity; Motivation; Personality

Abstract

The present study probed the concurrent relation of two theoretically associated risk factors for coping-motivated substance use - non-acceptance of negative affect and anxiety sensitivity - with coping-motivated drinking frequency (drinking to cope). A two-factor model of coping-motivated substance use put forth by Brown, Lejuez, Kahler, Strong, and Zvolensky (2005) suggests that both non-acceptance and the physical and Social dimensions of anxiety sensitivity might be related to coping motives for substance use broadly. The present study represents a particularly stringent test of this model in the field of alcohol use motives. It was hypothesized that the individual facets of AS (physical and Social) and non-acceptance would predict coping-motivated drinking frequency, controlling for gender, negative affect, and the cognitive facet of AS. Data was obtained from a sample of 253 (51% Women; 89% Caucasian, Mage = 19.30, SD =1.39, range = 18-25) college students. Contrary to hypotheses, the results of hierarchical regression analyses suggested that the predicted AS facets and non-acceptance were unrelated to coping-motivated drinking. Trend-level findings suggested that the cognitive dimension of AS and non-acceptance might influence drinking to cope indirectly by increasing levels of trait anxiety and negative affect, respectively. Moreover, the physical facet of AS was significantly associated with conformity-motivated drinking and non-acceptance evidenced a strong trend-level relation with conformity-motivated drinking. Findings are discussed in relation to Brown and colleagues' (2005) model, the broader body of literature on the relation between AS and drinking to cope, and the findings contained in Bonn-Miller et al. (2008). Limitations are presented and future work is proposed.

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