Intensive Longitudinal Associations between Stress, Mindfulness, Alcohol Craving and Use in Highly Stressed Mothers

Mallory A. Kisner

Advisor: Tara Chaplin, PhD, Department of Psychology

Committee Members: Sarah Fischer, Tim Curby

Off-Campus Location, GMU Center for Community Mental Health, Room 420
May 04, 2026, 02:00 PM to 04:00 PM

Abstract:

Rates of alcohol use among women have risen in recent decades, including among mothers. Multiple theories of alcohol use focus on the role of stress in predicting alcohol craving and use, and some studies suggest that women are even more likely than men to drink to cope with stress. The mindfulness-stress buffering hypothesis suggests that mindfulness may buffer against effects of stress on negative health outcomes, including alcohol use, and findings from a few global questionnaire-based or intervention studies support this. However, very few studies have considered how different types of stress (e.g., parenting stress) may relate differently to alcohol craving and use in daily life. In addition, to our knowledge, no studies have looked at whether mindfulness can buffer against effects of stress on alcohol craving and use in the moments that stress occurs. Therefore, the present dissertation study examines momentary effects of stress on alcohol craving and use (and moderation by mindfulness) in the daily lives of highly stressed mothers of adolescents.

Paper 1 examines associations between momentary stress with alcohol craving and use. In this paper, we present findings that higher momentary, within-person perceived stress and non-parenting stressors predict higher alcohol craving. Additionally, we find that experiencing more parenting stressors is associated with lower likelihood of alcohol use in the same timepoint. In Paper 2, we find that the association between some facets of mindfulness buffered against associations between stress and alcohol craving while others amplified stress-craving associations, and this differs depending on the type of stress (parenting vs. non-parenting). Additionally, we present evidence that the nonreactivity facet of mindfulness may help prevent drinking behaviors in this sample.

Overall, our findings support prior work showing that higher stress is associated with higher alcohol craving in daily life and that mindfulness might prevent against stress-related drinking. Importantly, we found this to be true in a sample of highly stressed mothers of adolescents, where alcohol use may pose greater risks to the health of mothers and their children. Our findings also provide further rationale for carefully considering the types of stressors that mothers experience (e.g., parenting vs. non-parenting) and how different facets of mindfulness relate differently to alcohol craving and use in daily life.