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Background: We conducted a longitudinal study to examine person-centered heterogeneity in problem drinking risk during the 2019 Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. We aimed to differentiate high- from low-risk subgroups of drinkers during the pandemic, to report on the longitudinal follow-up of the baseline sample reported in Wardell et al. (Alcohol Clin Exp Res, 44, 2020, 2073), and to examine how subgroups of drinkers differed on coping-related and pre-pandemic alcohol vulnerability factors., Methods: Canadian alcohol users (N = 364) were recruited for the study. Participants completed surveys at four waves (spaced 3 months apart), with the first being 7 to 8 weeks after the COVID-19 state of emergency began in Canada. The data were analyzed using a parallel process latent growth class analysis followed by general linear mixed models analysis., Results: We found evidence for three latent classes: individuals who increased drinking (class 1; n = 23), low-risk drinkers (class 2; n = 311), and individuals who decreased drinking (class 3; n = 30). Participants who increased (vs. those who decreased) problem drinking during the pandemic struggled with increasing levels of social disconnection and were also increasingly more likely to report drinking to cope with these issues. Those in the increasing class (relative to low-risk drinkers) reported increasing levels of depression during the study. Relative to low-risk drinkers, participants in the increasing class had higher pre-pandemic AUDIT scores, greater frequency of solitary drinking, and higher alcohol demand. Interestingly, participants in the decreasing class had the highest pre-pandemic AUDIT scores., Conclusions: We examined longitudinal data to identify subgroups of drinkers during the pandemic and to identify factors that may have contributed to increased problem drinking. Findings suggest that while most of the sample did not change their alcohol use, a small portion of individuals escalated use, while a small portion decreased their drinking. Identifying the vulnerability factors associated with increased drinking could aid in the development of preventative strategies and intervention approaches., (© 2022 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.)

Background: There are concerns that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may increase drinking, but most accounts to date are cross-sectional studies of self-attributions about alcohol-related impacts and the accuracy of those perceptions has not been investigated. The current study examined the correspondence between self-attributions of pandemic-related changes in drinking and longitudinally-measured changes in drinking and alcohol-related consequences in a sample of emerging adults., Methods: In an existing ongoing longitudinal study on alcohol misuse (≥1 heavy episodic drinking day/month) in emerging adults, 473 individuals (M age  = 23.8; 41.7% male) received a supplemental assessment from June 17th to July 1st, 2020, during public health restrictions in Ontario, Canada. These intrapandemic data were matched to the most recent assessment prior to the pandemic (~8 months earlier). Self-attributions about changes in drinking were assessed globally (i.e., increases/decreases/no change) and with higher resolution questions clarifying the magnitude of changes., Results: Global self-attributions about changes in drinking substantively paralleled longitudinal changes in weekly drinking days (DD). In the longitudinal data, individuals' who self-reported increases in drinking exhibited significant increases; individuals' who self-reported decreases exhibited significant decreases; and individuals who self-reported no change exhibited nonsignificant changes. Higher resolution items likewise revealed longitudinal patterns of weekly drinking that were substantively consistent with self-attributions. Heavy DD and alcohol-related consequences exhibited similar patterns, but only individuals who self-reported large increases in drinking exhibited increases on these outcomes. Individuals who reported large increases in drinking also exhibited significant increases in depression and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms., Conclusions: Self-attributions about drinking closely corresponded to longitudinal changes in drinking, supporting the validity of self-attributions in population-level surveys, particularly in young adults. Notably, a subgroup was identified that exhibited pronounced increases for all alcohol-related outcomes and concurrent increases in internalizing psychopathology., (© 2021 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.)