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Social Isolation Predicting Problematic Alcohol Use In Emerging Adults: Examining The Unique Role Of Existential Isolation, Geneva Carolyn Yawger

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Current rates of excessive alcohol use and abuse among young adults are recognized as a major problem by scholars across a wide variety of fields. Here, I take a social psychological approach to understanding why individuals drink to excess, examining the unique role that a specific form of social isolation called existential isolation (feeling alone in one’s experiences of the world; Yalom, 1980; Pinel, Long, Murdoch, & Helm, 2017) may play in predicting alcohol use and abuse. The relationship between existential isolation and alcohol use is explored using both correlational and cross-lagged designs. Results indicate that existential isolation predicts alcohol …