A longitudinal examination of the relationships among stress, coping strategies, and problems associated with alcohol use.

This study examined the longitudinal relationships among family history of alcoholism (FH+), stress levels, utilization of coping methods, and alcohol-related problems. Data used in this study were obtained from a nonclinical sample of subjects who were originally interviewed when they were 12, 15, or 18 years of age and followed-up twice more at 3-year intervals for a longitudinal sample size of 1270. Although a greater percentage of females in this sample reported a FH+ background as well as higher levels of stress, they tended to utilize positive coping strategies more often and reported fewer numbers of alcohol problems than males. In general, younger subjects who reported high levels of stress experienced more alcohol-related problems regardless of coping method chosen. In older subjects, the effect of stress on problems appeared to be buffered when coupled with the use of support seeking. Subjects whose stress preceded problems exhibited no significant difference from subjects whose problems preceded stress and symptom-free and "stressed-only" subjects were not significantly different from each other in number of problems at time 3, suggesting that a direct effect of stress alone on alcohol-related problems is questionable.