Testing both affordability-availability and psychological-coping mechanisms underlying changes in alcohol use during the COVID-19 pandemic

Two theoretical perspectives have been proffered to explain changes in alcohol use during the pandemic: the 'affordability-availability' mechanism (i.e., drinking decreases due to changes in physical availability and/or reduced disposable income) and the 'psychological-coping' me...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	PloS one Vol. 17; no. 3; p. e0265145
Main Authors:	McBride, Orla, Bunting, Eimhear, Harkin, Oisín, Butter, Sarah, Shevlin, Mark, Murphy, Jamie, Mason, Liam, Hartman, Todd K, McKay, Ryan, Hyland, Philip, Levita, Liat, Bennett, Kate M, Stocks, Thomas V A, Gibson-Miller, Jilly, Martinez, Anton P, Vallières, Frédérique, Bentall, Richard P
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Public Library of Science 24-03-2022 Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:	Adaptation, Psychological Adult Adults Alcohol Drinking - epidemiology Alcohol Drinking - psychology Alcohol use Alcoholic beverages Alcohols Anxiety Availability Biology and Life Sciences Communicable Disease Control Coping Coping (Psychology) Coronaviruses Costs and Cost Analysis COVID-19 COVID-19 - epidemiology Disease transmission Drinking Drinking behavior Drinking of alcoholic beverages Drunkenness Economics Evaluation Humans Hypotheses Income Intolerance Medicine and Health Sciences Mental depression Methods Motivation Multivariate statistical analysis Neurosis Pandemics Post traumatic stress disorder Posttraumatic stress disorder Prevention Public health Purchasing Resilience Social Sciences Socioeconomics Stress Working hours United Kingdom England United Kingdom > UK Northern Ireland Ireland
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Summary:	Two theoretical perspectives have been proffered to explain changes in alcohol use during the pandemic: the 'affordability-availability' mechanism (i.e., drinking decreases due to changes in physical availability and/or reduced disposable income) and the 'psychological-coping' mechanism (i.e., drinking increases as adults attempt to cope with pandemic-related distress). We tested these alternative perspectives via longitudinal analyses of the COVID-19 Psychological Consortium (C19PRC) Study data (spanning three timepoints during March to July 2020). Respondents provided data on psychological measures (e.g., anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress, paranoia, extraversion, neuroticism, death anxiety, COVID-19 anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty, resilience), changes in socio-economic circumstances (e.g., income loss, reduced working hours), drinking motives, solitary drinking, and 'at-risk' drinking (assessed using a modified version of the AUDIT-C). Structural equation modelling was used to determine (i) whether 'at-risk' drinking during the pandemic differed from that recalled before the pandemic, (ii) dimensions of drinking motives and the psychosocial correlates of these dimensions, (iii) if increased alcohol consumption was predicted by drinking motives, solitary drinking, and socio-economic changes. The proportion of adults who recalled engaging in 'at-risk' drinking decreased significantly from 35.9% pre-pandemic to 32.0% during the pandemic. Drinking to cope was uniquely predicted by experiences of anxiety and/or depression and low resilience levels. Income loss or reduced working hours were not associated with coping, social enhancement, or conformity drinking motives, nor changes in drinking during lockdown. In the earliest stage of the pandemic, psychological-coping mechanisms may have been a stronger driver to changes in adults' alcohol use than 'affordability-availability' alone.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:	1932-6203 1932-6203
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pone.0265145