Project Summary
Stress exposure is a significant predictor of young adult alcohol use, with uncontrollable stressors, such as
natural disasters and mass traumas, being particularly harmful. Digital stress exposure, defined as exposure to
any stressful event through the use of a smartphone including but not limited to online news articles, social media
posts, and text messages, has recently received increased attention. Digital stress exposure has been linked to
increased anxiety and PTSD symptoms, and some report digital stress exposure as more stressful than in-
person stress exposure. However, research has yet to examine the impact of digital stress exposure on young
adult AU. The year 2020 presents as a unique window to explore the impact of digital stress exposure on young
adult alcohol use as a myriad of uncontrollable stressors occurred at global, national, state and interpersonal
levels, including the COVID-19 pandemic, racial injustices, and civil unrest. These stressors were amplified
through the media, making digital stress exposure frequent and often unavoidable. Simultaneously, reports
indicated significant increases in young adults' technology use and alcohol use. As young adults are at increased
risk of developing alcohol use disorders, and harmful drinking during young adulthood predicts later alcohol
problems, it is imperative that we investigate the effects of digital stress exposure on young adults' alcohol use.
Given that stressors occurred rapidly during 2020, it is important to examine stressors at the daily level in order
to capture the frequent stressors occurring. Additionally, microlevel contexts such as romantic relationships can
exacerbate stress and alcohol use between partners, making this context of influence equally important to
include. To fill these gaps, this research proposal utilizes a 21-day daily diary study implemented with young
adult couples during the beginning of the pandemic. This study utilized a novel data collection method wherein
participants uploaded screenshots from their smartphones indicating the most stressful digital event of each day.
The first aim of the proposed project is to adapt an existing coding system for the daily stressful digital events
and assess its validity. The second aim will examine if objective and subjective ratings of digital stressful events
are associated with same- and next-day alcohol use. Examination of subjective and objective stress ratings for
digital stressful events is imperative as desensitization and depersonalization during the pandemic may
contaminate participant self-reports. The proposed research project supports my training objectives: 1) obtain a
deeper conceptual and ethical understanding of the impact of stress on young adult alcohol use, 2) advance
quantitative skills in the area of intensive longitudinal data analysis, and 3) improve my abilities in scientific writing
and dissemination. Adapting an existing daily stressful event coding system for stressful digital events would
afford researchers the opportunity to identify specific aspects of technology use that impacts young adult alcohol
use, which may aid the development of prevention and intervention efforts by highlighting the underlying day-to-
day mechanisms through which technology use relates to alcohol use among young adults.
