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Trauma Exposure and Problem Drinking in Late Adolescence: A Latent Profile Analysis
Author(s) -
Witte Tricia H.,
Weymouth Bridget B.,
Gajos Jamie M.,
Penunuri Andrew,
Levy Sera
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of traumatic stress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.259
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1573-6598
pISSN - 0894-9867
DOI - 10.1002/jts.22599
Subject(s) - injury prevention , psychology , clinical psychology , poison control , posttraumatic stress , alcohol , alcohol use disorder , human factors and ergonomics , suicide prevention , young adult , psychiatry , occupational safety and health , medicine , developmental psychology , environmental health , biochemistry , chemistry , pathology
Exposure to early traumatic events has been implicated in problem drinking during late adolescence, and this association may be stronger among youth with emotion regulation deficits. The purpose of this study was to identify subgroups of late adolescents based on trauma type, including loss, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms; and emotion regulation deficits that confer the risk for problematic drinking behaviors. A sample of 946 participants ( M age = 18.84 years, SD = 1.06) was analyzed with mixed‐indicator latent profile analysis to identify subgroups and explore whether these subgroups displayed significant differences regarding elevated drinking frequency, alcohol quantity, and problematic alcohol use. A four‐profile model yielded the best fit to the data, and four groups were identified and labeled “high functioning” (29.4%), “loss regulated” (32.3%), “loss dysregulated” (28.1%), and “multiple trauma dysregulated” (10.1%). Individuals in the high functioning group reported the lowest rates on all three measures of alcohol misuse (14.6‐24.9%), whereas those in the multiple trauma dysregulated group reported the highest rates on all three measures (31.6‐71.5%). Individuals in the multiple trauma dysregulated group ( M = 0.25) differed significantly from those in the other three groups ( M s = 0.42–0.72) on the measure of problematic alcohol use but scored similarly to those in the loss dysregulated group on measures of drinking frequency ( M = 0.32 and 0.24, respectively) and quantity ( M = 0.43 and 0.39, respectively). These findings have implications for prevention programs targeted for alcohol use disorders among older adolescents.