Rumination and worry as putative mediators explaining the association between emotional disorders and alcohol use disorder in a longitudinal study

The high rate of comorbidity between alcohol use and emotional disorders is well demonstrated, but the mechanisms underlying their relationship remain largely unidentified. One possibility is maladaptive responding to negative affect, such as worry and rumination. The present study sought to examine worry and rumination as putative mediators explaining the link between emotional disorders and alcohol use disorders. Methods Mediational analyses were conducted using a sample (n = 232) derived from a larger late adolescence/early adulthood longitudinal dataset (Youth Emotion Project; Zinbarg et al., 2010). Results A significant indirect effect was observed for emotional disorder severity on alcohol use disorder severity via rumination, but not via worry or the shared variance between worry and rumination. Conclusions These findings suggest that rumination may specifically confer risk for the development of alcohol use disorder for individuals with emotional disorders. Further, ruminative thinking may serve as a specific treatment target to reduce vulnerability to alcohol use disorder.