Daily-Level Self-Compassion and Coping-Motivated Drinking

Objectives: Individuals may turn to alcohol in part because they lack effective strategies to manage negative affect (NA), such as self-compassion. Motives to cope with NA are key mechanisms of problem drinking outcomes that are associated with self-compassion. Drinking to cope (DTC) has been found to mediate the associations between negative affect (NA) and alcohol outcomes at the between-person level, but findings have been variable at the within-person level. Self-compassion components (particularly self-kindness and self-judgment) could serve as moderators to alter the impact of NA on drinking outcomes and may explain the prior varied findings. Accordingly, this study examined daily DTC as a mediator of NA-alcohol consequences and tested whether daily self-kindness/self-judgment moderated these associations. Method: Regularly drinking adults (n = 128) completed up to 14 daily diaries each. Using multilevel structural equation modeling, we examined how daily variables interacted to predict alcohol consequences, while controlling for alcohol use and other drinking motives, at both within-person and between-person levels. Results: DTC was found to mediate the relationship between NA and DTC at the within-person level, documenting this pathway for the first time in a community sample while controlling for other motives/use. Self-kindness correlated negatively with NA and DTC at the within-person level. Self-judgment correlated positively with NA, DTC, and alcohol consequences on within-person and between-person levels. The interactions with self-kindness/self-judgment were not significant. Conclusions: Daily drinking to cope remains an important predictor of problematic substance use at the within-person level. Self-kindness/self-judgment was correlated with NA, DTC, and alcohol consequences, showing promise for relevance to drinking processes. Further work should be conducted to explore how individuals apply these skills with more precise temporal order. Preregistration: This study is not preregistered.