Abstract
Background and Aims
Having a negative cognitive style may lead someone to feel hopeless about his or her situation and be more likely to engage in coping-motivated drinking. We therefore aimed to investigate the association between cognitive style and drinking to cope.
Design
Prospective cohort study.
Setting
The former Avon Health Authority in South West England.
Participants
1,681 participants of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.
Measurements
Participants completed cognitive style questions at age 17 and a subset of drinking to cope questions at age 24. We used linear regression to test the association between cognitive style and drinking to cope, controlling for confounders. Alcohol consumption and dependence scales were included in a secondary analysis.
Findings
A 20 point increase (which was the standard deviation of the exposure variable) in cognitive style score at age 17 was associated with an increase of 0.24 in drinking to cope scores at age 24 after adjustment for confounding variables (95% confidence interval (CI)=0.08-0.41, p=.003). We found no evidence of an association between cognitive style and alcohol consumption (coefficient=0.03, 95% CI=-0.08-0.14, p=.591) before or after adjustment. There was evidence for an association with alcohol dependence but this was not present after adjusting for confounders (coefficient=0.01, 95% CI=-0.04-0.05, p=.769).
Conclusions
In young adults in England, there appears to be a positive association between negative cognitive style and subsequent drinking to cope.
Having a negative cognitive style may lead someone to feel hopeless about his or her situation and be more likely to engage in coping-motivated drinking. We therefore aimed to investigate the association between cognitive style and drinking to cope.
Design
Prospective cohort study.
Setting
The former Avon Health Authority in South West England.
Participants
1,681 participants of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.
Measurements
Participants completed cognitive style questions at age 17 and a subset of drinking to cope questions at age 24. We used linear regression to test the association between cognitive style and drinking to cope, controlling for confounders. Alcohol consumption and dependence scales were included in a secondary analysis.
Findings
A 20 point increase (which was the standard deviation of the exposure variable) in cognitive style score at age 17 was associated with an increase of 0.24 in drinking to cope scores at age 24 after adjustment for confounding variables (95% confidence interval (CI)=0.08-0.41, p=.003). We found no evidence of an association between cognitive style and alcohol consumption (coefficient=0.03, 95% CI=-0.08-0.14, p=.591) before or after adjustment. There was evidence for an association with alcohol dependence but this was not present after adjusting for confounders (coefficient=0.01, 95% CI=-0.04-0.05, p=.769).
Conclusions
In young adults in England, there appears to be a positive association between negative cognitive style and subsequent drinking to cope.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 570-579 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Addiction |
| Volume | 117 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 2 Aug 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 13 Feb 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:A comprehensive list of grants funding is available on the ALSPAC website ( http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/external/documents/grant-acknowledgements.pdf ); this research was specifically funded by Medical Research Council (MRC) (MR/L022206/1) and Wellcome Trust (08426812/Z/07/Z).
Funding Information:
The UK Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust (Grant ref: 217065/Z/19/Z) and the University of Bristol provide core support for ALSPAC. This publication is the work of the authors and E.C. will serve as guarantor for the contents of this paper.
Funding Information:
We are extremely grateful to all the families who took part in this study, the midwives for their help in recruiting them and the whole ALSPAC team, which includes interviewers, computer and laboratory technicians, clerical workers, research scientists, volunteers, managers, receptionists and nurses. We also acknowledge support from University College London Hospital Biomedical Research Centre.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. Addiction published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society for the Study of Addiction.
Keywords
- alcohol use
- drinking to cope
- cognitive style
- negative attributions
- learned helplessness
- ALSPAC
- longitudinal
- birth cohort