Trauma and Problem Drinking in Late Adolescence: A Latent Profile Analysis

Introduction: Exposure to traumatic events in childhood or adolescence is a significant risk for problem drinking in late adolescence. Certain traumatic events (e.g., assault) confer greater risk for problem drinking compared to others (e.g., natural disaster). Other studies also show that combinations of traumatic stress and emotion dysregulation signify cumulative risk for problem drinking in adolescence, particularly during the transition to college. However, it is unclear how various combinations of trauma experiences and emotion regulation might confer risk (or protect) against problematic drinking during late adolescence. The purpose of this study is to identify subgroups of late adolescents based on trauma type, posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS), and emotion regulation deficits and their risk for problematic drinking.

Methods: This study was a secondary data analysis of survey data from 900 college students (modal age 18 and 19) in the southeastern United States. Participants provided information about their experiences of traumatic events (accident, assault, or death/loss of a loved one), current posttraumatic stress symptoms, emotion regulation deficits, and multiple indices of problem drinking. Mixed-indicator latent profile analysis was used to identify subgroups of participants based on trauma type, PTS symptoms, and emotion regulation deficits and whether they displayed differences in risk for problem drinking.

Results: A 5-profile model yielded the best fit to the data. Assaulted-unaware adolescents were more likely report assault trauma, PTSD symptoms, and below average emotional regulation, including lower awareness of their emotions. Assault-aware adolescents were similar, except they reported greater awareness of their emotions. Loss-traumatized adolescents were more likely to report a family death/loss trauma and to report PTS symptoms. Loss-regulated adolescents reported PTS symptoms and better than average emotion regulation. Accident-avoidant adolescents were more likely to report an accident trauma and lower than average clarity of awareness of their emotions. Group comparison revealed significant differences across the five groups with respect to problem drinking. Assault-aware and assault-unaware adolescents reported more problematic drinking than all other groups (e.g., guilt, needing to cut back, etc.). Loss-traumatized adolescents reported drinking significantly less per month than all other groups.

Conclusions: There is important heterogeneity in experiences and responses to trauma. Experiences of assault have significant implications for late adolescent problem drinking and appear more significant than experiences of an accident or family death, regardless of emotion regulation deficits.