Is “maturing out” of problematic alcohol involvement related to personality change?

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2015

"Maturing out" of problem drinking is associated with both role transitions (e.g., getting married) and personality development. However, little is known concerning how these 2 mechanisms jointly influence problem-drinking desistance. This study investigated whether salutary effects of role transitions and personality occur at different points in young-adult development and whether they mediate one another's effects. Participants were initially recruited as first-year undergraduates, with family history of alcoholism overrepresented by design (N = 489). Using 4 waves of data at roughly ages 21, 25, 29, and 34, cross-lagged panel models estimated prospective relations among familial-role transitions (marriage or parenthood), personality (disinhibition, conscientiousness, and neuroticism), and problem drinking. Mixed support was found for the prediction of roles being more strongly associated with earlier maturing out of problem drinking and personality being more strongly associated with later maturing out. Regarding mediation, no evidence was found for the expectation that role effects would be mediated by personality. However, results did support mediation of personality effects by role transitions. Specifically, lower disinhibition and higher conscientiousness in emerging adulthood predicted role adoption, which, in turn, predicted later problem-drinking reductions. Family history of alcoholism also distally influenced these mediation processes. The differential timing of role and personality effects is consistent with the notion of decreasing contextual influences and increasing intrapersonal influences across development. In light of role incompatibility theory, results suggest that, over the course of development, the association of familial roles with problem drinking may increasingly reflect problem-drinking effects on role entry (i.e., role selection) and decreasingly reflect role entry effects on problem drinking (i.e., role socialization). As emerging-adult disinhibition and conscientiousness were associated with an apparent developmental cascade of both direct and indirect effects, findings highlight their potential importance as etiologic mechanisms and intervention targets.

Journal of Personality, 2000

The current study had two goals. The first goal was to test the mediational role of young adult personality in the relation between parental alcoholism and young adult alcoholism. The second was to examine the associations between personality and alcohol use motives and reasons to limit drinking in order to explore possible mechanisms by which personality may influence alcohol abuse/dependence. Multilevel modeling techniques were used to analyze data obtained from a community sample of young adult children of alcoholics and demographically matched controls. Results revealed that young adult neuroticism and agreeableness each, in part, mediated the effect of parental

Personality and …, 2010

Basic personality dimensions are relevant factors in the development of alcohol consumption. The main aim of this research was to evaluate the associations among some of the most important biodispositional models of personality, and to explore its role in the non-pathological alcohol consumption in young adults. In this study, the personality of 539 college students (283 women) was assessed using four questionnaires: EPQ-RS, SPSRQ-S, NEO-FFI, and TCI. Alcohol consumption was assessed with the AIS scale. Factor analyses of the different scales showed four broad factors labelled Negative Emotionality, Disagreeable Disinhibition, Unconscientious Disinhibition, and Positive Emotionality. The openness to experience scale was not well represented in the factor solution and was excluded from the factor analysis. This dimension was studied independently in relation to alcohol use. Disagreeable Disinhibition predicted alcohol consumption both during the week and at the weekend, whereas Unconscientious Disinhibition was associated with non-pathological alcohol drinking at weekends. These results were interpreted according to processes associated with impulsivity that facilitate alcohol use in young adults.

Development and Psychopathology, 2013

Research has shown a developmental process of "maturing out" of alcohol involvement beginning in young adulthood, but the precise nature of changes characterizing maturing out is unclear. We used latent transition analysis to investigate these changes in a high-risk sample from a longitudinal study of familial alcoholism (N=844; 51% children of alcoholics; 53% male, 71% non-Hispanic Caucasian, 27% Hispanic). Analyses classified participants into latent drinking statuses during late adolescence (ages 17-22), young adulthood (ages 23-28), and adulthood (ages 29-40), and characterized transitions among these statuses over time. The resulting four statuses were abstainers, low-risk drinkers who typically drank less than weekly and rarely binged or showed drinking problems, moderate-risk drinkers who typically binged less than weekly and showed moderate risk for drinking problems, and high-risk drinkers who typically binged at least weekly and showed high risk for drinking problems. Maturing out between late adolescence and young adulthood was most common among initial high-risk drinkers, but they typically declined to moderate-risk drinking rather than to non-risky drinking statuses. This suggests that the developmental phenomenon of maturing out pertains primarily to relatively high-risk initial drinkers, and that many high-risk drinkers who "mature out" merely reduce rather than eliminate their risky drinking.

Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2020

Objective: It is well known that certain personality traits are associated with alcohol use. Because less is known about it, we wished to investigate whether changes in alcohol use were longitudinally associated with changes in personality and in which direction the influence or causation might flow. Methods: Data came from the self-reported questionnaire answers of 5,125 young men at two time points during the Cohort study on Substance Use Risk Factors (C-SURF). Their average ages were 20.0 and 25.4 years old at the first and second wave assessments, respectively. Four personality traits were measured: (a) aggression-hostility; (b) sociability; (c) neuroticism-anxiety; and (d) sensation seeking. Alcohol use was measured by volume (drinks per week) and binge drinking (about 60+ grams per occasion). Cross-lagged panel models and two-wave latent change score models were used. Results: Aggression-hostility, sensation seeking, and sociability were significantly and positively cross-sectionally associated with both alcohol use variables. Drinking volume and these three personality traits bidirectionally predicted each other. Binge drinking was bidirectionally associated with sensation-seeking only, whereas aggression-hostility and sociability only predicted binge drinking, but not vice versa. Changes in alcohol use were significantly positively associated with changes in aggression-hostility, sensation seeking, and sociability. Associations reached small Cohen's effect sizes for sociability and sensation seeking, but not for aggression-hostility. Associations with neuroticism-anxiety were mostly not significant. The direction of effects confirmed findings from other studies, and the association between changes in personality and alcohol use support the idea that prevention programs should simultaneously target both.

Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2010

There is little question of whether personality is associated with problematic alcohol involvement (such as alcohol use disorders; AUDs); it clearly is. However, the question remains: how or why is personality related to risky drinking and AUDs? To address this question, theoretical models have been posited regarding the causal effects of personality on alcohol use and related problems. In this article, several of these models are summarized and reviewed. Future research directions are discussed, including possible frameworks that serve to integrate various models of the personality-AUD relation. personality; alcohol use disorders; drinking motives Does personality relate to pathological alcohol use? This question has long been a focus of substance use researchers and clinicians. Though the identification of an "addictive personality" (i.e., a specific configuration of personality characteristics linked to addictive behaviors) has largely been abandoned, numerous studies demonstrate links between specific personality traits and problematic alcohol involvement. More specifically, though traits related to impulsivity/disinhibition appear to demonstrate the most robust and consistent relation with alcohol involvement, all Five-Factor traits (i.e., openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism) have been shown to correspond, with varying degrees of consistency, to alcohol use and outcomes (see Sher, Barthalow, & Vieth [1999] for a review of papers linking personality to alcohol use disorders [AUDs] and for a recent metaanalysis that suggests, among Five-Factor traits, only conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism are significantly linked to alcohol involvement, and Trull & Sher [1994] for an alternative analytic approach involving personality and AUDs). Thus, the question of whether personality is associated with problematic alcohol involvement (such as alcohol use disorders; AUDs) can be clearly answered: yes! What remains to be addressed is how or why personality relates to risky drinking and AUDs. Understanding the mechanisms of how broad personality traits such as neuroticism influence mental and physical health has recently been identified as "top priority for research" , and the relation between personality and AUDs is no exception. Though personality and AUDs could be, logically, linked in a variety of ways (e.g., personality could influence

The purpose of the present study was to place drinking motives within the context of the Five-Factor Model of personality. Speci®cally, we sought to determine whether certain personality domains and facets of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) predict Enhancement, Coping, Social, and/or Conformity drinking motives from the Revised Drinking Motives Questionnaire (DMQ-R). A sample of 256 university student drinkers (M age =21.3 years) completed the NEO-PI-R and DMQ-R. In bivariate correlations, the two negative reinforcement motives (Coping and Conformity) were positively correlated with Neuroticism and negatively correlated with Extraversion. The two positive reinforcement motives (Enhancement and Social) were positively correlated with Extraversion and negatively correlated with Conscientiousness. Multiple regression analyses revealed that personality domain scores predicted two of the four drinking motives (i.e. the internal drinking motives of Coping and Enhancement), after controlling for the in¯uences of alternative drinking motives. Enhancement Motives were predicted by high Extraversion and low Conscientiousness, and Coping Motives by high Neuroticism. Supplementary correlational analyses involving certain personality facet scores revealed that the depression and self-consciousness facets of the Neuroticism domain were positively correlated with residual Coping and Conformity Motives, respectively, and that the excitement-seeking and gregariousness facets of the Extraversion domain were positively correlated with residual Enhancement and Social Motives, respectively. These results provide further validation of Cox and Klinger's 2 Â 2 (valence [positive vs negative reinforcement] Â source [internal vs external]) model of drinking motivations, and con®rm previous speculations that drinking motives are distinguishable on the basis of personality domains and facets. Understanding the relations between personality and drinking motives may prove useful in identifying young drinkers whose drinking motivations may portend the development of heavy and/or problem drinking. 7

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2000

We examined personality traits (Sociability, Impulsivity, Neuroticism) as mediators of the effects of family history on alcohol outcomes.

Personality and its potential link to health behaviours including alcohol use has been the subject of much discussion in academia for decades. Considerable evidence suggests that factors of personality such as extraversion and conscientiousness can predict health behaviours in populations (Kewley &Vickers, 1994). One problem in this research is the reliance on measuring personality with a five-factor model. The present study aims to investigate the potential link between personality and both alcohol consumption and alcohol disorder behaviour. The study utilises the HEXACO six-factor model of personality. This allows for the opportunity to investigate the Honesty/Humility domain of personality that is not recorded in five-factor models. Student drinkers (n=286) were asked a series of questions taken from the HEXACO-PI-R (personality test) and the AUDIT (alcohol use disorders identification test) via an online questionnaire (112 item). Data was analysed using bivariate correlations and multiple regression analyses. Bivariate correlations revealed that both Conscientiousness and Honesty/Humility were significantly negatively correlated with alcohol consumption and alcohol disorder behaviour. Openness to Experience was significantly negatively correlated with alcohol consumption, and Extraversion was significantly positively correlated with alcohol consumption. Multiple Regression revealed low Conscientiousness made the biggest individual contribution as a predictor of both alcohol consumption and alcohol disorder behaviour. Multiple Regression also revealed that low Honesty/Humility was a predictor of alcohol disorder behaviour. The present study provides further evidence for a link between personality domains and alcohol use, highlighting the effectiveness and encouraging the use of a six-factor model of personality in future empirical investigations.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 2014

After high school, college students escalate their drinking at a faster rate than their noncollegeattending peers, and alcohol use in high school is one of the strongest predictors of alcohol use in college. Therefore, an improved understanding of the role of predictors of alcohol use during the critical developmental period when individuals transition to college has direct clinical implications to reduce alcohol-related harms. We used path analysis in the present study to examine the predictive effects of personality (e.g., impulsivity, sensation seeking, hopelessness, and anxiety sensitivity) and three measures of alcohol perception: descriptive norms, injunctive norms, and perceptions regarding the perceived role of drinking in college on alcohol-related outcomes. Participants were 490 incoming freshmen college students. Results indicated that descriptive norms, injunctive norms, and the role of drinking largely mediated the effects of personality on alcohol outcomes. In contrast, both impulsivity and hopelessness exhibited direct effects on alcohol-related problems. The perceived role of drinking was a particularly robust predictor of outcomes and mediator of the effects of personality traits, including sensation seeking and impulsivity on alcohol outcomes. The intertwined relationships observed in this study between personality factors, descriptive norms, injunctive norms, and the role of drinking highlight the importance of investigating these predictors simultaneously. Findings support the implementation of interventions that target these specific perceptions about the role of drinking in college.

Frontiers in psychology, 2015

Personality and expectancies are relevant psychological factors for the development of adolescent alcohol use and misuse. The present study examined their direct, mediated and moderated effects on different drinking behaviors in adolescence. Personality domains of the five-factor model, positive and negative alcohol expectancies (AEs), alcohol use during the week and the weekend, and alcohol-related problems were assessed in a sample of 361 adolescents. Different personality dimensions were directly associated with specific alcohol outcomes: Extraversion, low Conscientiousness and low Openness were associated with weekend alcohol use; low Agreeableness was related to weekday use; whereas low Agreeableness, low Conscientiousness and Extraversion were associated with alcohol-related problems. In addition, positive AEs mediated the relationship between Extraversion and alcohol use, whereas both positive and negative expectancies mediated the association between Neuroticism and alcohol ...

Aims: Alcohol use follows a developmental trajectory-steadily increasing and peaking in the early stages of emerging adulthood (e.g. first year of university) and declining thereafter. While most individuals 'mature out' of problem drinking as they move through emerging adulthood, some continue to drink heavily and experience serious problems. Tension reduction theory identifies social anxiety (SA) as a potential risk factor for problem drinking during emerging adulthood. However, mixed data suggest that the associations between SA and drinking behaviours are not straightforward. Cross-sectional studies demonstrate that socially anxious emerging adults are at risk for problem drinking, but only if they are also high in trait impulsivity. This study aimed to expand on previous work by examining trait impulsivity as moderator of the prospective associations between SA and maturing out of problem drinking in emerging adulthood. Methods: Undergraduates (N = 302) completed online self-reports at regular intervals (6-months) over an 18-month period, resulting in four waves of data. Results: Unconditional latent growth curve models indicated that alcohol problems (but not use) declined linearly over time. Next, conditional growth curve models revealed that SA was associated with impeded maturing out of alcohol problems, but this effect was only present in socially anxious participants with high levels of trait impulsivity. Conclusion: Our study advances growing literature on the crucial moderating role that impulsivity plays in the SA pathway to problem drinking. Clinical interventions for problem drinking among socially anxious students should both assess for and target concurrent impulsivity.

Addictive Behaviors, 2012

Research has shown that personality traits associated with impulsivity influence alcohol use during emerging adulthood, yet relatively few studies have examined how distinct facets of impulsivity are associated with alcohol use and abuse. We examine the influence of impulsivity traits on four patterns of alcohol use including frequency of alcohol use, alcohol-related problems, binge drinking, and alcohol use disorders (AUDs) in a community sample of young individuals (N = 190). In multivariate regression analyses that controlled for peer and parental alcohol use, psychological distress, and developmental correlates (i.e., college, marriage, employment) in emerging adulthood, we found that urgency and sensation seeking were consistently related to all four constructs of alcohol use. The present study suggests that distinct impulsivity traits may play different roles in escalation of alcohol use and development of AUDs during emerging adulthood.►We examined the relationships between impulsivity and alcohol use. ►Urgency and sensation seeking were positively related to alcohol use. ►Distinct impulsivity traits may play different roles in alcohol use.

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2012

Background-Adolescent selective intervention programs for alcohol have focused on the identification of youth at risk as a function of personality and associated alcohol-related cognitions. Research into the role of personality, drinking motivations, and alcohol-related outcomes has generally focused exclusively on motives to drink. We expand on this literature by focusing on both motives to drink and motives not drink across time from adolescence to early adulthood in a community sample. Methods-Using three waves of data from three cohorts from the Rutgers Health and Human Development Project (n = 1380; 49.4% women), we modeled the influence of baseline alcohol consumption, disinhibition and harm avoidance (ages 15, 18 and 21 years) on drinking motives and motives not to drink three years later (ages 18, 21 and 24 years) and alcohol use and drinkingrelated problems seven years subsequently (ages 25, 28, 31 years). Results-Path analytic models were relatively invariant across cohort. Across cohorts, disinhibition and baseline alcohol consumption related to later positive reinforcement drinking motives, but less consistency was found for the prediction of negative reinforcement motives to drink. While positive reinforcement motives were associated with greater alcohol consumption and problems seven years later, negative reinforcement motives were generally associated with problems alone. Positive reinforcement motives for drinking mediated relations between baseline consumption and later consumption. However, results were mixed when considering disinhibition as a predictor and drinking problems as an outcome. Similarly, personality and baseline consumption related to later motives not to drink and such motives predicted subsequent alcoholrelated problems. However, mediation was not generally supported for pathways through motives to abstain. The results of this study replicate and extend previous longitudinal findings with youth and add to the growing literature on motivations not to engage in alcohol use.

Technium Social Sciences Journal, 2020

Adolescence is assessed differently is being called the golden age, ungrateful, great elanuri, drama, crisis, anxiety, insecurity, social integration. Gradually, mental development, especially the intellect is mature in relation to social and cultural make it more accountable. It dominates the living new experiences and tend to self assertion expressions of disdain for the family because the teenager begins to believe that it is in adulthood. Alcohol use in adolescents, personality traits and the factors that determine consumption (psychological, hereditary and environmental, social and environmental), represented in particular by the groups entourage who are trained in adolescents, the subject of this research.