Is binge drinking in adolescence related to specific impairments in well-being? New insights from a pilot survey of high school students

Heavy episodic alcohol consumption or binge drinking (BD) is highly prevalent among adolescents in Europe. Young BD is associated with a range of negative health and social outcomes and its causes could be referred to greater positive alcohol expectancies or low self-efficacy and personality characteristics. Moreover, it is likely that some adolescents drink because they want to reduce negative emotions or deal with stress. Little is known on the relationship between BD and specific well-being impairments, whereas it seems that meaning in life, a concept similar to psychological well-being, do not characterize such population. We recruited 679 consecutive students who completed the Psychosocial Index and the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT). Among the recruited students, 337 consume alcohol and 161 report BD. Significant differences have been highlighted among three groups (no drinkers, drinkers and bingers) concerning stress and environmental mastery. Both higher scores of stress and lower levels of environmental mastery are associated with BD. These preliminary data show that BD is highly represented and the novelty of this study refers to the evaluation of binge drinking phenomenon in adolescents, through validated and reliable methods in the field of clinimetrics.