Essay/Term paper: The effects of stress, alcohol outcome expectancies, gender, coping styles, and family alcoholism on alcohol consumption

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Economics

The Effects of Stress, Alcohol Outcome Expectancies, Gender, Coping Styles, and
Family Alcoholism on Alcohol Consumption


Research Proposal by
Josh Robbins
100-928-594
November 26, 1996
Economics 143


Abstract

One large component of American popular culture today is alcohol. A
common stereotype for the effects of alcohol is that as a drug it acts as a
stress antagonist. This theory was introduced by Conger (1956) as the Tension
Reduction Hypothesis (TRW). It states that alcohol's sedative action on the
central nervous system serves to reduce tension, and because tension reduction
is reinforcing, people drink to escape it (Marlatt & Rehsenow, 1980). Why do we
drink, when do we drink, and how much do we drink? This research will determine
the correlation between total weekly consumption of alcohol and perceived stress,
alcohol outcome expectancies, gender, coping styles, and family history of
alcoholism among undergraduate students. Do people drink more or less when
stressed? Do alcohol outcome expectancies lead to higher or lower consumption?
Is a history of family alcoholism positively or negatively correlated to
personal consumption? Do the tested variables play mediating or moderating
roles in stress-related drinking? This research will determine the answers to
these questions, and determine the strength of the correlations, if any.

Introduction

The main question that this statistical model will answer is as follows:
Is there any correlation between drinking and gender, alcohol expectancies,
family alcoholism, stress, and coping styles?

Gender
It has been demonstrated that significant differences exist between the
drinking patterns of men and women (Hilton, 1988). In a survey of US drinking
habits conducted in 1988 by the US National Center for Health Statistics, Dawson
and Archer (1992) showed that there are three areas illustrating gender
differences. The first is the actual number of male and female drinkers. The
study showed that 64% of men versus 41% of women were current drinkers. Second,
men were more likely to consume alcohol on a daily basis (17.5 grams of ethanol
per day versus 8.9 grams for women). Third, men were more likely to be
classified as heavy drinkers. In fact, when the classification measure of a
"heavy drinker" was changed from five drinks or more per day to nine drinks or
more per day the ration of male to female heavy drinkers increased by a factor
of 3.

Stress
Are the theories mentioned above about stress-induced drinking accurate?
There have been studies which disprove the Tension Reduction Hypothesis. For
instance, in a study by Conway, Vickers, Ward, and Rahe in 1981 it was found
that "the consumption of alcohol among Navy officers during periods of high job
demands was actually lower than the consumption during low-demand periods."
Additionally, some drinkers have been known to consider alcohol as a tension
generator rather than a tension reducer.

Alcohol Expectancies
The expectations of what effects alcohol consumption may have play an
important role in drinking habits. These expectancies first develop in
childhood as indirect learning experiences (media, family modeling, peer
influence) and, as a result of increased direct experiences with the
pharmacological effects of alcohol, become more refined (Christiansen, Goldman,
& Inn, 1982). Do the expectancies that people hold about alcohol decently
predict consumption? Some people believe that alcohol consumption will increase
sexual and aggressive behavior, or otherwise enhance social experiences. Many
people subscribe to the view that alcohol acts as "liquid courage".

Data
The dependent variable for this research will be Weekly Alcohol
Consumption (WEEK), measured by the total number of drinks consumed in 1 week.
A standard drink is defined as a 12-ounce bottle/can of beer, 1.5 ounce shot of
liquor, or a 5 ounce glass of wine. The predictor variables would include the
dummy variable GENDER, where D1=1 for a male, STRESS, alcoholic expectancies
(EXPECT), family alcoholism (FAMILY), and difference coping styles (COPE).
The complete list of possible measurable variables are: Perceived
Stress, Family History of Alcoholism, Problem-Focused Coping, Emotion-Focused
Coping, Less Useful Coping, and Drinking to Cope. For alcohol expectancy
outcomes, the following variables would be useful: Sociability, Tension
Reduction, Liquid Courage, Sexuality, Cognitive & Behavioral Impairment, Risk &
Aggression, and Self Perception. The data for this research project will be
collected through surveys and questionnaires given to undergraduate students at
one university, but not limited to one department. An attempt should be made to
split the test group approximately equal in terms of sex. Since race/ethnicity
and age are not being tested, they are irrelevant for this study. Compensation
may be necessary (possibly a beer), as college students' time is quite valuable,
and the questionnaire may take approximately 30 minutes. There are a number of
tests which currently exist which may be used to evaluate the subjects.

1. Adapted Short Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (Adapted SMAST)
This is a 13 item self-report questionnaire developed by Sher and
Descutner in 1986 which is designed to measure family history of alcoholism.
This is a yes/no type of test, and is specifically determines the extent of an
individual's parents' alcohol abuse.

2. Comprehensive Effects of Alcohol (CEOA)
The CEOA (Fromme, Stroot & Kaplan, 1993) has 38 questions, and is
designed to measure alcohol outcome expectancies. There are seven expectancy
scales, four positive (sociability, tension-reduction, liquid-courage, and
sexuality) and three negative (cognitive-behavioral impairment, risk and
aggression, and self perception). The answers are based on a five point scale
with 1 = disagree and 5 = agree.

3. Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)
The PSS (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983) is a 14 item self-report
designed to assess the degress to which situations in one's life are appraised
as stressful. There are 7 positive and 7 negative questions.

4. COPE
The COPE (Carver et al., 1989) has 53 questions and is designed to
assess individual coping dispositions. This test is quite complicated, as it is
made up of 14 scales which are categorized into 3 coping styles: Problem-Focused
Coping, Emotion-Focused Coping, and Less than Useful Coping (Denial, Behavioral
Disengagement, and Mental Disengagement). The main result we will be looking at
is a section called "Drinking to Cope". This will help us find out whether
people drink to cope and if so, in what situations.

Specification

The regression equation for this research will be as follows: WEEKi = b0
+ b1(GENDER)i + b2(STRESS)i + b3(EXPECT)i + b4(FAMILY)i + b5(COPE)i

The expected signs of the coefficients are as follows:
b1: This is a dummy variable, with only 2 possible values, 0=female and
1=male;
b2: Positive. Increased stress leads to increased drinking;
b3: Both. It will probably be positive with expectancy variables like
Tension Reduction, liquid-Courage and Sexuality, while negative with Behavioral
Impairment, Risk & Aggression, and Self Perception;
b4: Positive. One would expect an alcoholic family would increase the
likelihood of an alcoholic child;
b5: Positive. If we restrict this variable to Drinking To Cope, it
should be positive.

I would plan to run a regression using one predictor variable at a time,
and then adding an additional variable until many possibilities have been
regressed, determining the correlation between the different predictors. This
will determine as well which predictors account for what percentage of the
variability.

Anticipated Benefits

After determination of the correlation between weekly drinking and the 5
predictor variable discussed herein, we will be able to focus on which variables
have more effect, or higher correlation. If the highest correlation is found in
the FAMILY variable, we will know to spend more time and money on programs which
promote "Family Values". If high correlation is found with the STRESS variable,
we can direct our energies to making college less stressful. This research
should be used as a signal for what needs to be done in the future.

References

Carver, C. S., Scheier, M. F., & Weintraub, J. K. (1989). Assessing coping
strategies: A theoretically based approach. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 56, 267-283. Christiansen, B. A., Goldman, M. S., & Inn, A. (1982).
Development of alcohol-related expectancies in adolescents: Separating
pharmacological from social-learning influences. Journal of Consulting and
Clinical Psychology, 50, 336-344. Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R.
(1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social
Behavior, 24, 385-396. Conger, J. J. (1956). Alcoholism: Theory, problem and
challenge. II. Reinforcement theory and the dynamics of alcoholism. Quarterly
Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 13, 296-305. Conway, T. L., Vickers, R. R., Ward,
H. W., & Rahe, R. H. (1981). Occupational stress and variation in cigarette,
coffee, and alcohol consumption. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 22,
155-165. Dawson, D. A., & Archer, L. (1992). Gender differences in alcohol
consumption: Effects of measurement. British Journal of Addiction, 87, 119-123.
Hilton, M. E. (1988). Trends in US drinking patterns: Further evidence from
the past 20 years. British Journal of Addiction, 83, 269-278. Marlatt, G. A, &
Rohsenow, D. J. (1980). Cognitive processes in alcohol use: Expectancy and the
balanced placebo design. In N. K. Mello (Ed.). Advances in Substance Abuse:
Behavioral and biological research, Vol. 1. Greenwich: JAI Press. Sher, K. J.,
& Descutner, C. (1986). Reports of paternal alcoholism: Reliability across
siblings. Journal of Addictive Behaviors, 11, 25-30.