Graduation Year

2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Degree Granting Department

Psychology

Major Professor

Mark S. Goldman, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Robert Schlauch, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Jack Darkes, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Diana Rancourt, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Eunsook Kim, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Toru Shimizu, Ph.D.

Keywords

alcohol, ecological momentary assessment, EMA, loneliness, social connection, social context

Abstract

Alcohol consumption tends to occur in social contexts and has been shown to increase prosocial behaviors and facilitate social connection. Simultaneously, socially excluded drinkers tend to increase or continue problematic levels of alcohol consumption when alone, possibly consuming alcohol as a replacement for desired but unavailable social connection. This investigation attempted to examine the relationship between loneliness (i.e., lack of perceived social connection) and subsequent alcohol consumption in solitary versus social contexts using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) techniques. University students recruited through a research subject pool who drank at least once per week were asked to respond to 28 short surveys sent to their smartphones across seven days, plus one more on the eighth day. Each day, the four surveys contained items to measure loneliness, alcohol use, and social context since the previous time point. Out of the 171 recruited participants, 78 (45.6% of the sample) later reported drinking less than once per week, on average, meaning nearly half of the sample did not meet all inclusion criteria. Without having obtained the proposed sample, the statistical analyses were performed for exploratory purposes. Results indicated that drinking context (i.e., solitary or social) did not moderate the relationship between loneliness and alcohol consumption quantity as hypothesized. There was a significant main effect of context, such that participants drank more in social contexts than in solitary ones. Additionally, time-of-day and weekends were significant predictors of higher drinking quantity. Possible explanations for the null effect findings of the hypothesized interaction effect are discussed.

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