Meta-analysis: People do not drink alcohol to drown their sorrows, but to indulge in their joys

Dora, Jonas, Marilyn Piccirillo, Katherine T. Foster, Kelly Arbeau, Stephen Armeli, Marc Auriacombe, Bruce D. Bartholow, et al. 2022. “The Daily Association Between Affect and Alcohol Use: A Meta-analysis of Individual Participant Data.” PsyArXiv. February 1. psyarxiv.com/xevct

Abstract: Influential psychological theories hypothesize that people consume alcohol in response to the experience of both negative and positive emotions. Despite two decades of daily diary and ecological momentary assessment research, it remains unclear whether people consume more alcohol on days they experience higher negative and positive affect in everyday life. In this preregistered meta-analysis, we synthesized the evidence for these daily associations between affect and alcohol use. We included individual participant data from 69 studies (N = 12,394), which used daily and momentary surveys to assess affect and the number of alcoholic drinks consumed. Results indicate that people do not drink more often on days they experience high negative affect, but are more likely to drink and drink heavily on days high in positive affect. People self-reporting a motivational tendency to drink-to-cope and drink-to-enhance were estimated to consume more alcohol, but not to consume more alcohol on days they experience higher negative and positive affect. Results were robust across different operationalizations of affect, study designs, study populations, and individual characteristics. Based on our findings, we collectively propose an agenda for future research to explore open questions surrounding affect and alcohol use.