Motives of abstinence versus metacognition and self-conscious emotions in people addicted to alcohol.

Objectives: The target of the present study was to show the relationship between time and motives for maintaining abstinence and metacognitive beliefs about alcohol and self-conscious emotions.

Methods: Ninety-one alcohol-dependent individuals who are currently maintaining abstinence participated in the study. Three instruments were used to measure individual variables: RALD was used to examine motives for maintaining abstinence, MPA was used to measure the level of individual metacognitive beliefs about alcohol, and SUM 5 was used to measure the level of self-conscious emotions in addicts who maintain abstinence. Correlation analyses were performed and differences in mean ranks of metacognition and self-awareness emotions were examined for the two independent samples.

Results: All metacognitive beliefs were shown to negatively correlate with abstinence time. Some metacognitive beliefs were negatively associated with abstinence motives. Moreover, positive associations of self-conscious emotions and metacognitive beliefs with time and abstinence motives were found. Both metacognitive beliefs and self-conscious emotions have different mean levels depending on the duration of abstinence.

Conclusions: The study revealed that both psychological constructs are related to abstinence maintenance and can be creatively used in further analyses of addiction recovery and relapse prevention.