Consuming to Cope: Investigating College Students’ Expressive Suppression as an Indirect Effect of Family Communication and Drinking Context

This study explored relationships between family communication patterns, college students’ expressive suppression, and drinking to cope, aiming to assess whether suppression might represent an indirect effect in the relationship between conformity orientation and drinking to cope. Participants (N = 251) completed an online questionnaire analyzed using CFA and SEM. Results indicated that conformity orientation has a small impact on drinking to cope and that conformity orientation predicts suppression. Specifically, students from protective family types tend to use suppression more and are more likely to drink to cope. Results also demonstrated a small relationship between suppression and drinking to cope. Lastly, college students’ use of suppression acts as an indirect effect in explaining a small part of the association between conformity orientation and drinking to cope.