Browsing by Author "Zegel, Maya"
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Item Alcohol Use among Trauma-Exposed College Students: Associations with Sleep and Distress Tolerance(2020-09-29) Kabel, Katherine E.; Zegel, MayaAlcohol misuse is a public health concern among undergraduate students, particularly those who report trauma exposure. Sleep disturbance, a prevalent issue for undergraduate populations, is related to heightened alcohol use severity and coping-motivated alcohol use. Distress tolerance (DT) is a transdiagnostic factor, defined as the perceived ability to withstand negative emotional states, that may exacerbate associations between sleep disturbance and alcohol use by amplifying coping-oriented alcohol use intended to manage negative emotional states. The present study examined the indirect effect of sleep disturbance on alcohol use through alcohol-related coping motives at differing levels of DT, after controlling for gender, trauma load, past month substance use, and conformity, enhancement, and social drinking motives. Data were collected as part of a larger, survey-based study examining stress and health-related behaviors among college students. Participants included 2066 trauma-exposed, undergraduate students who endorsed lifetime alcohol consumption (77.8% female; 49.8% white; Mage= 22.3 ± 5.0 years). Sleep disturbance was significantly associated with alcohol use severity indirectly via coping-motivated alcohol use (b = .0740, SE = .0110, CI [.0539, .0971]), replicating past work. As hypothesized, the model was not significant for other drinking motives (i.e., enhancement, social, and conformity). However, when DT was added as a moderator to the model, the results were not significant (b = .0002, SE = .0006, CI [-.0011, .0014]. Further research examining the interrelatedness of trauma, sleep disturbance, coping-motivated alcohol use, and DT can inform evidence-based prevention and intervention for college students.Item Posttraumatic Stress, Alcohol Use, and Alcohol Use Motives among Firefighters: The Role of Distress Tolerance(2019-12) Zegel, Maya; Vujanovic, Anka A.; Viana, Andres G.; Tran, Jana K.Firefighters represent a unique, vulnerable population at high risk for alcohol use disorder (AUD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology due to the high rates of occupational exposure to traumatic events. To inform specialized alcohol use interventions for firefighters, it is important to understand relevant malleable cognitive-affective factors related to PTSD and AUD symptoms. Distress tolerance (DT), defined as the perceived ability to withstand negative emotional states, is one promising factor relevant to this domain. The current study aimed to examine the moderating role of DT in the association of PTSD symptom severity with alcohol use severity and motives. It is hypothesized that, among firefighters with higher levels of PTSD symptoms, lower levels of DT will be related to more severe alcohol use and greater coping-oriented alcohol use motives but no other use motives. Participants included 652 trauma-exposed firefighters (93.3% male; Mage = 38.7 years, SD = 8.6) who endorsed lifetime (ever) alcohol use. A series of regression analyses was conducted using PROCESS v3.1 for IBM SPSS version 25.0. Covariates included romantic relationship status, number of years in the fire service, occupational stress, and trauma load (i.e., number of traumatic event types). For analyses examining alcohol use motives, alcohol consumption was included as an additional covariate. The interactive effect of PTSD symptom severity and DT was significantly associated with coping-oriented alcohol use motives (R2 = .023, B = -.001, p<.001) but no other alcohol-related outcomes. This is the first study to concurrently examine these variables among firefighters. This line of inquiry will have great potential to inform intervention efforts for this vulnerable, understudied population.