Alcohol use and addiction: The moderating role of psychological stress

Abstract

Various literatures indicate that psychological stress can influence the amount of alcohol consumed and high alcohol consumption can later lead to addiction. The aim of the study was to examine the role of psychological stress as a predictor of alcohol use and addiction. One hundred and seventy-eight (178) adults of which 36 were females and 142 were males from Omoro district participated in the study. They were aged between 18 to 50 years. These participants were consuming alcohol at a minimum of three days in a week. These participants answered a self-scoring questionnaire which included the perceived stress scale and the AUDIT. The perceived stress scale was used to assess the stress score, AUDIT subscales were used to measure for alcohol use and addiction. The study was guided by four hypotheses. Linear regression was used to test the first three hypotheses and the fourth hypothesis was tested using the PROCESS macro for SPSS method. The results obtained from the study indicated that psychological stress was a significant predictor of alcohol use (t=3.631, F=13.185, R2=.070, p <.001), psychological stress was a significant predictor of addiction (t=5.607,F=31.433, R2=.152, p<.001), alcohol use was a significant predictor of addiction (t=13.722, F=188.304, R2= .517, p<.001) and the relationship between alcohol use and addiction was significantly dependent on the level of psychological stress (t=29.8014, p= .8088).