A new study explored the mediating role of coping motives in the relationship between depressive symptoms and drinking risk outcomes among college and non-college emerging adults. Participants (N = 341) were 18 to 25 year olds who were either enrolled in college (N=223) or were not in college (N = 118). Participants were interviewed and completed questionnaires that included the following measures. Parental history of alcohol was coded for participants who stated that either one of their parents had an alcohol problem. Residential status of participants was coded as either living with parents or not living with parents based on participant responses. Depressive symptoms of participants were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Drinking motives of participants were assessed using the Drinking Motives Questionnaire (DMQ). Alcohol consumption was assessed using a semi-structured interview based on the Timeline Follow-Back (TLFB) measured. Lastly, alcohol-related problems were assessed using the Short Inventory of Problems (SIP-2R). The authors used structural equation modeling (SEM) for their primary mediation analysis and bias-corrected bootstrap resampling for testing the statistical significance of mediated effects. Results showed that among college students, depression was positively and significantly associated with use of alcohol for coping (p < 0.01), this association was not statistically significant among non-students. Among non-students, the SIP was positively and significantly associated with use of alcohol for enhancement (p < 0.05), this association was not statistically significant among students. The SIP was also positively and significantly associated with use of alcohol for coping among both non-students (p < 0.05) and students (p < 0.01). Furthermore, frequency of heavy episodic drinking was not associated significantly with either PHQ depression scores or use of alcohol for coping in either group. On the other hand, frequency of heavy episodic drinking was associated positively with use of alcohol for enhancement among both non-college students (p < 0.01) and college students (p < 0.01). Among non-students, depression was not associated significantly, either directly or indirectly (mediated) by coping motives, with the SIP, while among college students both the total effect (p < 0.001) and mediated effect of depression via coping (p < 0.01) on the SIP were statistically significant. In addition, depression was not associated directly with frequency of heavy episodic drinking, nor was it mediated by coping motives in either group.
Take away: Drinking to cope was associated with alcohol-related problems in both college and non-college student samples. However, although drinking to cope mediated the relationship between depressed mood and alcohol problems among students, it did not mediate the pathway among non-students.