The Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Alcohol Abuse and Drunkorexia Behaviors in Young Adults

Daniele Di Tata (), Dora Bianchi, Sara Pompili and Fiorenzo Laghi
Additional contact information
Daniele Di Tata: Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Dora Bianchi: Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Sara Pompili: Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Fiorenzo Laghi: Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 4, 1-12

Abstract: The COVID-19 outbreak negatively affected young adults’ psychological well-being, increasing their stress levels and symptoms of anxiety and depression, and potentially triggering health-risk behaviors. The present study was aimed at investigating the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on alcohol abuse and drunkorexia behaviors among young adults living in Italy. Participants were 370 emerging adults (63% women, 37% men; M age = 21.00, SD age = 2.96, range: 18–30) who were recruited through an online survey between November 2021 and March 2022. Participants completed measures of alcohol abuse, drunkorexia behaviors, negative life experiences, and post-traumatic symptoms related to the COVID-19 outbreak. The results showed that the emotional impact and negative life experiences associated with the pandemic predicted both alcohol abuse and drunkorexia behaviors, albeit in different ways. Specifically, the number of negative life experiences during the pandemic and the tendency to avoid COVID-19–related negative thoughts positively predicted alcohol abuse; and the presence of intrusive thoughts associated with the pandemic significantly predicted the frequency of drunkorexia behaviors. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.

Keywords: drunkorexia; food and alcohol disturbance; alcohol abuse; COVID-19 pandemic; young adults (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/3466/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/3466/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:4:p:3466-:d:1070210

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().