Drinking to cope: a comparison of questionnaire and electronic diary reports.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to assess the correspondence between questionnaire reports of dispositional drinking to cope (DTC) and different indices of daily DTC in a sample of nondependent heavy drinkers. METHOD: Data from electronic diary (ED) records of interpersonal problems, negative affect, coping and drinking were used to examine how questionnaire reports of dispositional DTC corresponded to ED reports of daily DTC and to within-person associations among ED reports of negative affect, interpersonal problems and drinking. In the current study, 98 community-residing heavy drinkers using EDs recorded moods, interpersonal problems, coping attempts, desire to drink and drinking for 21 consecutive days. RESULTS: The findings demonstrate correspondence between questionnaire reports of dispositional DTC and (1) ED reports of daily DTC, (2) intensity of negative mood associated with daily drinking initiation and (3) some between-person differences in within-day prediction of drinking and desire to drink from mood and interpersonal problem ratings. Those reporting higher dispositional DTC were somewhat more likely to drink in response to some negative moods and less likely to drink in response to some positive moods than those reporting relatively lower dispositional DTC, but these findings were mixed. CONCLUSIONS: Questionnaire reports of dispositional DTC are at best inconsistently linked to observed within-person associations among daily moods, interpersonal problems and drinking even among heavy drinkers.

Do we know how we cope? Relating daily coping reports to global and time-limited retrospective assessments.

The current study examined the concordance among daily, trait (global retrospective), and time-limited retrospective reports of coping. A sample of 93 adults completed the COPE (C. S. Carver, M. F. Scheier, & J. K. Weintraub, 1989) prior to recording coping with the day's most negative event for 30 consecutive days. At the end of daily data collection, participants recalled to what extent they used each of 16 coping strategies over the past 30 days. Whereas findings indicate generally good concordance between daily and time-limited retrospective reports, concordance between global and daily reports was weak. Only limited evidence was found for systematic individual differences in concordance. Time-limited reports appear to be an adequate, though not ideal, method of determining usual patterns of coping with stress.

A daily diary validity test of drinking to cope measures.

Data from 2 daily diary studies of stress, negative affect, and drinking were used to examine the correspondence between global self-reports of drinking to cope (DTC) and within-person stress/negative affect-drinking associations. In Study 1, 83 community-residing drinkers recorded data in nightly booklets on negative events, perceived stress, negative affect, and drinking for 60 consecutive days. In Study 2, 88 community-residing drinkers recorded data on negative events and negative interpersonal exchanges nightly and negative affect and drinking in near-real time on palmtop computers for 30 consecutive days. Both studies showed only modest correspondence between self-reported DTC and between-person differences in within-day, daily, and weekly associations between stress/negative affect and drinking. The findings indicate that individuals who report higher DTC simply may drink across a wider variety of conditions than those who report relatively lower DTC.

A daily process examination of the stress-response dampening effects of alcohol consumption.

The authors used a daily process design to assess alcohol's stress-response dampening (SRD) effects. Moderate to heavy social drinkers (N=100) reported on palmtop computers their alcohol consumption and social context in vivo for 30 days. Participants also reported on their mood states in the late morning and early evening and completed a paper-and-pencil daily diary in which they recorded their negative events. The association between negative events and mood was weaker on days when individuals consumed alcohol prior to the final mood assessment. However, the moderating effect of alcohol on the negative event-mood association was limited to drinking in social situations. Alcohol's SRD effects varied as a function of several between-person risk factors.