Objective: This study examines
stress-motivated drinking and its potential contribution to alcohol problems
for young adults in college and subsequent postcollegiate contexts,
specifically focusing on the simultaneous influences of life course stage and
gender. Method: Data are drawn from a research project on health and
well-being among multiple cohorts of college students and graduates from an
undergraduate institution of higher education.
Representative samples of students were surveyed in 1982 (n = 1,514), 1987 (n = 659), and 1991 (n =
926). Surveys were administered to
graduates in 1987 (graduating classes of ’79, ’82, ’85; n = 1,151). Using this
cross-sectional and longitudinal database, developmental aging effects are
tested while checking for historical cohort and period effects. Results:
Stress-motivated drinking is somewhat more prevalent in the undergraduate
years as are other drinking motivations, but stress-related reasons for
drinking are relatively more prominent among motivations and relatively more
problematic in terms of consumption levels and consequences in succeeding years
after college. The prominence of
stress-related drinking and its increased negative effects begin sooner for
women than for men. Conclusion: Moving from college to stages of postcollegiate young
adulthood is associated with substantial decreases in alcohol consumption and
related problems. Drinking for stress
reduction, however, becomes increasingly prominent as the primary motivation
for the drinking that does occur in postcollegiate life and this drinking
motivation also becomes increasingly problematic in terms of negative
consequences of alcohol use as each cohort ages. The problematic prominence of
stress-motivated drinking is notable at earlier developmental points in this trajectory
for women. (J. Stud. Alcohol 60: 219-227,
1999)