Latent Profiles of Alcohol Consumption Among College Students Exposed to Trauma

Background Alcohol use/misuse is a costly public health problem, particularly among college students in the United States. Alcohol use tends to increase during adolescence and peaks in the early/mid-20s; however, there is significant heterogeneity among alcohol use during the college years. Several studies applying a mixture modeling framework to extract latent profiles of alcohol consumption have been conducted. However, none to our knowledge has included only those exposed to trauma, a group known to be at risk for alcohol misuse. The aim of this longitudinal study (n = 1,186) was to identify profiles of alcohol consumption and their associations with demographic and trauma-related constructs. Method Data were collected from a larger study of college students attending a large public university. Participants in the current study were, on average, 18.46 years old at study entry, primarily female (69.6%), and of diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds (e.g., 48.8% White, 20.4% Black, 16.8% Asian). Results Results suggest evidence for four latent profiles. These classes include an initially high increasing, an initially high decreasing, an initially low decreasing, and an initially low increasing, the last of which had not been found. Using analyses of variance, profile membership was associated with number of traumas, probable posttraumatic stress disorder, broad drinking motives, and trauma-specific drinking-to-cope motives. Conclusions Results suggest that drinking motives and trauma-related factors are important correlates of these latent alcohol profiles. Work clarifying the longitudinal interrelations between profile membership and these factors is needed to help inform more effective prevention and intervention efforts.