Abstract

Objectives: Observational studies suggest emotion regulation (ER) as a potential treatment target for problematic college drinking. The primary aim of this laboratory study was to determine whether trait ER strategies would moderate the impact of negative affect induction on alcohol craving in college drinkers. Methods: Participants were randomly assigned to a neutral (n = 74) or a negative affect induction (n = 76) and reported their craving after the affect inductions. Results: Greater use of drinking to cope and less use of cognitive reappraisal predicted greater alcohol craving after the negative affect induction, but not after the neutral condition. In contrast, emotion suppression did not predict alcohol craving in either condition. Conclusion: Our results highlight the role of ER tendencies—particularly the benefits of cognitive reappraisal—on alcohol craving when experiencing emotional distress. Therefore, ER strategies may be an important target for college drinkers to prevent and reduce problematic drinking.

摘要

目的：观察性研究表明情绪调节（ER）是大学饮酒问题的潜在治疗目标。这项实验室研究的主要目的是确定特质 ER 策略是否会减轻负面情绪诱导对大学饮酒者酒精渴望的影响。方法：参与者被随机分配到中性情绪诱导组（n  = 74）或负面情绪诱导组（n  = 76），并在情绪诱导后报告他们的渴望。结果：更多地使用饮酒来应对和更少地使用认知重新评估可以预测在负面影响诱导后对酒精的渴望更大，但在中性条件后则不然。相比之下，在这两种情况下，情绪抑制都不能预测对酒精的渴望。结论：我们的结果强调了 ER 倾向（尤其是认知重新评估的好处）对经历情绪困扰时的酒精渴望的作用。因此，ER策略可能是大学饮酒者预防和减少问题饮酒的重要目标。