Andres Roque: The Relationship Between Alcohol Consumption and Depression with Moderating Effects of Experiential Avoidance

There is a well-established relation between alcohol use and depression (Boden & Fergusson, 2011; Fergusson, Boden, & Horwood, 2009). One possible moderator of the relationship between alcohol and depressive symptoms is experiential avoidance, or the attempt to escape or avoid negative experiences (Hayes, 2016). Avoidance of perceived social threats can also lead to depressive symptoms (Holahan et al., 2005) and greater drinking to cope with social interactions. Students (104) completed 6 weekly surveys on their behaviors, emotions, and psychological experiences. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Beck Depressive Inventory (BDI; Beck et al., 1996) and the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ-II; Bond et al., 2011) assessed experiential avoidance. Participants reported their alcohol drinking behaviors. Time-Varying Covariates in Multilevel Growth Models were utilized. Across participants, there was a significant association for days binged and alcohol daily use on depressive symptoms, in that the more days participants used alcohol the lower their depressive symptoms. Experiential avoidance moderated the relationship between alcohol daily use and depressive symptoms, in that when participants are higher than their average on experiential avoidance, higher than average daily alcohol use was positively associated with higher depressive symptoms.