Posttraumatic Stress, Alcohol Use, and Alcohol Use Motives among Non-Hispanic Black/African American College Students: The Role of Emotion Regulation.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-30-2022

Publication Title

Journal of Dual Diagnosis

Abstract

The associations between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity, alcohol use, and alcohol use motives are well-established. Emotion regulation difficulties have been implicated in the association between PTSD symptoms and alcohol use. A dearth of empirical work, however, has examined these associations among Black/African American college students, a population with high prevalence of exposure to potentially traumatic events, PTSD symptomatology, and alcohol-related consequences. This study examined PTSD symptoms, emotion regulation difficulties, and alcohol use severity and motives among a sample of Black/African American trauma-exposed college students (N = 282; 77.4% identified as female; M age = 22.36, SD = 4.71). PTSD symptom severity was related to alcohol use and coping and conformity motives for alcohol use through heightened emotion regulation difficulties. Findings were significant above and beyond the effects of trauma load (i.e., number of potentially traumatic event types experienced). This study extends past work to an understudied population and contributes to groundwork for culturally informed interventions.

First Page

3

Last Page

15

PubMed ID

36583682

Volume

19

Issue

1

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