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Abstract
This dissertation was a study of women's and men's use of alcohol to cope with emotional distress. Participants (N = 740) were adults drawn from a community sample, originally recruited through random-digit dialing for a larger investigation on gender differences in depression across adulthood. For this study, participants completed questionnaires by mail. The two major questions explored were: (1) What are key psychological correlates of use of alcohol to cope? (2) Are these correlates the same for both women and men?
It was hypothesized that an individual's use of alcohol to cope with emotional distress would be predicted by: the belief that one should use alcohol to cope; a small range of adaptive coping behaviors; and a wide range of maladaptive coping behaviors. It was further hypothesized that the smaller one's range of adaptive coping behaviors, the stronger the effect of the belief that one should use alcohol to cope on reported actual use of alcohol to cope. As well, the larger one's range of maladaptive coping behaviors, the stronger the effect of the belief that one should use alcohol to cope on reported actual use of alcohol to cope. It was also hypothesized that the more one used alcohol specifically to cope, the greater one's overall alcohol consumption. Finally, it was hypothesized that these predictions would hold for both women and men.
Hierarchical multiple regressions showed that for both women and men, use of alcohol to cope was predicted by the belief that one should use alcohol to cope and by maladaptive coping range. Surprisingly, adaptive coping range did not predict use of alcohol to cope for either women or men. For men only, a wider maladaptive coping range increased the effect of the belief that one should use alcohol to cope on use of alcohol to cope. For both women and men, overall alcohol consumption was predicted by use of alcohol to cope. Chow tests showed that each of the regression coefficients that were significant for both women and men were equal in magnitude. Implications of these findings to gender studies, alcohol studies, and coping studies are discussed.
