ALCOHOL USE BEHAVIOURS AND LIFE SATISFACTION: THE ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL FLEXIBILITY

In Canada and the United States, there is currently an alcohol use disorder (AUD) crisis (Lodge et al., 2022), which necessitates the development of interventions focused on addressing the high prevalence of alcohol use.Psychological flexibility (PF) involves being consciously present in the moment and engaging in behaviours that align with personal values.Increased PF is associated with higher psychological well-being (Francis et al., 2016) and more positive addiction-related outcomes, including higher treatment adherence and fewer avoidance behaviours and cravings (Lee et al., 2015).The primary objective of this research was to examine the mediating role of PF in the relationship between daily use/alcohol use disorder symptoms and satisfaction with life (SWL).In total, we recruited 525 participants (Mage = 29.95years, SD = 16.81 years) from undergraduate psychology classes in Canada, the general population via social media, and Prolific, a crowdsourcing tool.Participants completed an online questionnaire package that included the Comprehensive Inventory of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (CompACT;Francis et al., 2016) to assess overall PF and subscales to measure behavioural awareness (BA), openness to experience (OE), and valued action (VA), daily/almost daily alcohol use (ASI; McLellan et al., 1992), DSM-5 criteria to assess AUD symptoms, and SWL scale (Diener et al., 1985).Overall, 89 participants reported never consuming alcohol, 31 reported consuming alcohol less than once a year, 70 reported consuming alcohol in the past year, 249 reported consuming alcohol in the past 30 days, and 72 reported consuming alcohol daily/almost daily.There were statistically significant zero-order correlations between SWLS and all aspects of PF, as well as inverse correlations between AUD and two PF subtypes, BA and OE.Two mediation analyses were conducted to examine if PF mediated the relationship between alcohol use and SWL.In the first model, the CompACT subscales did not mediate the relationship between daily alcohol use and SWL.In the second model, two dimensions of PF, VA (B = -0.0298,95% CI -0.0555 to -0.0041) and OE (B = -0.0370,95% CI: -0.0626 to -0.0115) partially mediated the relationship between self-reported AUD symptoms and SWL.These results highlight the mediating role of aspects of PF, specifically VA and OE, in the relationship between AUD and SWL.Interventions that focus on enhancing openness to both positive and negative experiences and focusing on personal values could help individuals with AUD maintain higher life satisfaction.