The Influence of Daily Stress on Impaired Control through Emotion Dysregulation and Drinking Motives

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) can be explained by some emotion-based hypotheses such as the self-medication hypothesis and negative reinforcement model. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to explore the dynamic relationships between daily stress, emotion dysregulation and drinking motives in the prediction of impaired control to drink alcohol in a clinical male sample. Male patients with AUD (n= 193) were recruited from alcohol centers of four psychiatric hospitals in South Korea. All participants completed a questionnaire that included the Hassles and Uplifts Scale, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Drinking Motives Questionnaire (DMQ), and the Impaired Control Scale (ICS). The serial multiple mediation model analyses showed that daily stress resulted in impaired control through emotional dysregulation and drinking motives in order. Specifically, both emotional dysregulation and drinking motives in turn had partial mediation effects on the relationship between daily stress and impaired control on alcohol. Moreover, when drinking motives were entered as a mediator individually, the size of the indirect effect for coping motives was larger than that of enhancement motives was, suggesting that there might be no gender difference related to drinking motives. These results suggest that daily stress as a precursor indirectly influences impaired control through emotion dysregulation and drinking motives among patients with AUD. Considering the connection between stress and impaired control on alcohol via emotion dysregulation and drinking motives, future interventions need to focus on providing an individualized intervention that includes stress management and adaptive emotion regulation strategies.