The daily association between affect and alcohol use: A meta-analysis of individual participant data

Jonas Dora, Marilyn Piccirillo, Katherine T. Foster, Kelly Arbeau, Stephen Armeli, Marc Auriacombe, Bruce D Bartholow, Adriene M. Beltz, Shari M. Blumenstock, Krysten Bold, Erin Bonar, Abby Braitman, Ryan William Carpenter, Kasey Creswell, Tracy DeHart, Robert Dvorak, Noah N Emery, Matthew Enkema, Catharine Fairbairn, Anne Fairlie, Stuart G Ferguson, Teresa Freire, Fallon Rachael Goodman, Nisha Gottfredson, Max Andrew Halvorson, Maleeha Haroon, Andrea Howard, Andrea Hussong, Kristina M. Jackson, Tiffany Jenzer, Dominic Kelly, Adam M. Kuczynski, Alexis Kuerbis, Christine Lee, Melissa Lewis, Ashley Linden-Carmichael, Andrew K. Littlefield, David M. Lydon-Staley, Jennifer Merrill, Robert Miranda, Cynthia Mohr, Jennifer Read, Clarissa Richardson, Roisin O'Connor, stephanie O'Malley, Lauren Papp, Thomas M. Piasecki, Paul Sacco, Nichole Scaglione, Fuschia Serre, Julia Shadur, Kenneth J. Sher, Yuichi Shoda, Tracy L. Simpson, Angela K. Stevens, Brittany Stevenson, Howard Tennen, Michael Todd, Hayley Treloar Padovano, Timothy J Trull, Jack T. Waddell, Katherine Walukevich-Dienst, Katie Witkiewitz, Tyler B Wray, Aidan G.C. Wright, Andrea M Wycoff, Kevin Michael King
Preprint psyRxiv. 2022-02-01; :
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/xevct


Influential psychological theories hypothesize that people consume alcohol in response to the experience of both negative and positive emotions. Despite two decades of daily diary and ecological momentary assessment research, it remains unclear whether people consume more alcohol on days they experience higher negative and positive affect in everyday life. In this preregistered meta-analysis, we synthesized the evidence for these daily associations between affect and alcohol use. We included individual participant data from 69 studies (N = 12,394), which used daily and momentary surveys to assess affect and the number of alcoholic drinks consumed. Results indicate that people do not drink more often on days they experience high negative affect, but are more likely to drink and drink heavily on days high in positive affect. People self-reporting a motivational tendency to drink-to-cope and drink-to-enhance were estimated to consume more alcohol, but not to consume more alcohol on days they experience higher negative and positive affect. Results were robust across different operationalizations of affect, study designs, study populations, and individual characteristics. Based on our findings, we collectively propose an agenda for future research to explore open questions surrounding affect and alcohol use.

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