Table 1.
Characteristics of the included studies (N = 27).
| References | Participants | Alcohol consumption assessment or alcohol administration | RNT assessment or induction | Study design | Main findings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adrian et al., 2014 | 521 adolescents (51.6% males; Mage = 12.0, range 11–13.6) | Engagement of substance use over the past 6 months was assessed by one item on the RAPI (White and Labouvie, 1989). DISC-IV (Columbia University DISC Development Group, 1998) |
RRS-R (Treynor et al., 2003) | Cross-sectional | Neither ruminative brooding and ruminative reflection did not significantly predict alcohol use. However, ruminative reflection mediated the association between depressive symptoms and alcohol use disorder. Pathways did not differ by sex |
| Aldridge-Gerry et al., 2011 | 367 college students (69.0% females and 1.0% males; Mage = 20.1, SD = 2.10, range 17–25). | Daily reports of the number of drinks consumed in an internet-based diary. | Rumination was assessed with a composite score from responses to the expressing feelings items (cried to myself; let my feelings out) and to the seeking understanding items (thought about why it happened; tried to figure out why things like this happen). | Ecological sampling method | Rumination was positively linked to alcohol use. |
| Battista and Kocovski, 2010 | 208 undergraduate university students (162 females; Mage = 19.37, SD = 3.52, range: 17–53). | DDQ (Collins et al., 1985) | PEP (Rachman et al., 2000) | Cross-sectional | Alcohol use predicted better the post-event processing level than trait social anxiety and depression. |
| Battista et al., 2014 | 84 university student (41 females; Mage = 21.37, SD = 2.06, range 19–28) with high score in a social anxiety scale. | DDQ (Collins et al., 1985) The Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) and Subjective Intoxication Rating Form (Kushner et al., 1996). |
PEP (Rachman et al., 2000) | Quasi-experimental | Social anxious woman were less engaged in post-event processing some days after drinking alcohol at the time of the social interaction whereas it was the opposite result for men. |
| Boschloo et al., 2013 | Individuals with no DSM-IV psychiatric disorder (n = 460), depressive/anxiety disorder only (i.e., depressive and/or anxiety disorder; n = 1,398), alcohol dependence only (n = 32) and co-morbid depressive/anxiety disorder plus alcohol dependence (n = 358). (1,496 females; Mage = 46.40, SD = 13.11) |
CIDI, version 2.1 (Wittchen et al., 1991) | The ≪ rumination reactivity ≫ subscale of the LEIDS-R (Van der Does, 2002) The 11-item ≪ Worry Engagement Scale ≫ of the PSWQ (Meyer et al., 1990) |
Cross-sectional | Rumination and worry were positively linked to alcohol use. |
| Bravo et al., 2018 | 1,429 college students from four distinct universities across the United States of America (two universities), Argentina and Spain (65,7% females). | DDQ (Collins et al., 1985) | The Ruminative Thought Style Questionnaire (RTSQ; Brinker and Dozois, 2009) | Cross-sectional | Increased depressive symptoms is associated with increased ruminative thinking which is associated with higher drinking-to-cope motives which is associated with higher alcohol consumption and negative alcohol-related consequences. |
| Caselli et al., 2008 | 36 patients (8 females) seeking treatment for alcohol abuse (Mage = 47.4, SD = 8.8, range = 31–64). | QFS (Cahalan et al., 1969) | RRS (Nolen-Hoeksema and Morrow, 1991) | Cross-sectional | Rumination was positively associated to alcohol use. |
| Caselli et al., 2010 | 75 outpatients (25 females) seeking treatment for alcohol abuse (Mage = 47.2, SD = 9.5, range = 24–64). | QFS (Cahalan et al., 1969) | RRS-R (Treynor et al., 2003) | Cross-sectional | Rumination was positively associated to alcohol use. |
| Caselli et al., 2013 | Three samples: (1) alcohol-dependent drinkers (n = 26; 8 females; Mage = 44.69, SD = 10.58, range = 26–65), (2) problem drinkers (n = 26; 7 females; Mage = 38, SD = 9.5, range = 26–63), and (3) social drinkers (n = 29; 9 females; Mage = 42.14, SD = 11.1, range = 25–65). | AUDIT (Saunders et al., 1993) Current craving on VAS from 0 to 10 |
RRS-R (Treynor et al., 2003) The rumination induction task (Nolen-Hoeksema and Morrow, 1991) |
Quasi-experimental | Craving was higher among patients in rumination induction condition. |
| Ciesla et al., 2011 | 447 undergraduate students in introductory psychology courses (289 female). 88% between the ages of 18–20, 10% between the ages of 21–25 and 2% 25 or older | DDQ (Collins et al., 1985) | RRS (Treynor et al., 2003) ARS (Sukhodolsky et al., 2001) CoR (Rose, 2002) PSWQ (Meyer et al., 1990) |
Cross-sectional | Angry rumination was positively linked to alcohol use. There was no gender differences. Co-rumination was positively linked to weekly drinking among women but higher levels of co-rumination were not significantly associated with alcohol use among men. There was not significant association between rumination and alcohol use in both girls and boys. Worry was negatively linked to alcohol use. There was not gender differences. |
| Devynck et al., 2016 | 152 participants were alcohol-dependent patients (n = 84; 17 women and 67 men; Mage = 47.11; SD = 9.87) and social drinkers (n = 68; 18 women and 50 men; Mage = 40.96; SD = 11.57) | AUDIT (Saunders et al., 1993) | The Mini-CERTS (Douilliez et al., 2014) RRS-R (Treynor et al., 2003) PSWQ (Meyer et al., 1990). |
Cross-sectional | Rumination, worry, and AAT were positively associated to alcohol use. |
| Frone, 2015 | 2,831 workers who took part in a telephone survey on work stress and health (53% males; Mage = 41, SD = 12.63) |
Heavy drinking was measured by three items assessing: (1) the frequency over the past 12 months of drinking five or more drinks within 2 h [if male]/four or more drinks within 2 h [if female]; (2) drinking to intoxication; and (3) drinking enough to experience a hangover Workday drinking was assessed with two indicators: (1) one indicator represented the frequency during the past 12 months of drinking while working, during lunch, or during other breaks and, (2) the other indicator represented the typical number of drinks consumed when drinking during the workday. After-work drinking was assessed with two items: (1) one item assessed the frequency during the past 12 months of commencing drinking within 2 h of leaving work and, (2) the other item assessed the typical number of drinks consumed when drinking after work |
NAPWRS (Frone, 2015) | Cross-sectional | Rumination related to work was positively linked to alcohol use. |
| Goldstein, 2006 | 108 undergraduate students enrolled in psychology courses (51 men; Mage = 19.6, SD = 1.1, and 57 females; Mage = 19.9, SD = 1.0, range 18–21) | KAT (Khavari and Farber, 1978) | RSQ (Nolen-Hoeksema and Morrow, 1991) | Cross-sectional | There was not significant link between depressive rumination and alcohol use among both boys and girls. |
| Grynberg et al., 2016 | 200 participants were alcohol dependent patients (n = 100; 29 females; Mage = 49.44, SD = 9.68) and control subjects (n = 100; 29 females; Mage = 48.51, SD = 11.7) | Alcohol consumption characteristics were controlled for: (1) the number of previous clinical detoxification treatments, (2) the duration of alcohol dependence (in years), and (3) the daily alcohol consumption just before detoxification (in units of 10 g of pure ethanol) | Mini-CERTS (Douilliez et al., 2014) | Cross-sectional | AAT was positively associated to alcohol use. |
| Hilt et al., 2015 | 388 adolescents (52% female) in the spring of Grades 9 (Mage = 15.26, SD = .34) and 11 (Mage = 17.22, SD = .32). |
Participants were asked if they ever had a drink of alcohol (i.e., “beer, wine, wine coolers, or hard liquor”), and if so, on how many days in the last month (30 days) they had an alcoholic drink. | RRS-R (Treynor et al., 2003) modified for adolescents to report on their habitual responses to feeling “upset” rather than “depressed” | Cross-sectional | Rumination was associated with alcohol use for adolescents reported more having friends who use alcohol. There was not gender differences. |
| Kelly et al., 2005 | 140 undergraduate students (51,4% females; Mage = 20.27, SD = 2.76). | AUDIT (Saunders et al., 1993) | The 25 items version of the WDQ (Tallis et al., 1991) | Cross sectional | Worry was negatively associated to alcohol use. |
| Nichter and Chassin, 2015 | 818 male juvenile offenders between age 14 and 19. At Wave 1, the mean age of participants was 16.0 (SD = 1.17) and 16.51 for Wave 2 (SD = 1.18). |
Typical quantity of drinking was assessed using an item asking how many drinks participants typically drank when they engaged in alcohol use. Frequency of binge drinking was assessed by an item asking how many times youth had drunk five or more drinks at one time during the past six months, in alignment with the standardized definition of binge drinking for males proposed by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse Alcoholism, NIAAA, 2004 | The 11-item Worry subscale from the RCMAS (Reynolds and Richmond, 1997) | Cross-sectional | Worry was negatively linked to different alcohol use outcomes. |
| Nolen-Hoeksema and Harrell, 2002 | 1,132 participants, answering by phone, between the ages of 25–75 | SCID (First et al., 2002) Two items from the Cope Inventory (Carver et al., 1989) |
RRS (Nolen-Hoeksema and Morrow, 1991) | Cross-sectional | Rumination was positively linked to alcohol related problem, and drinking to cope predicted alcohol-related problems in both men and women. |
| Page et al., 2011 | 30,851 adolescents from Philippines, China, Chile and Namibia | “During the past 30 days, on how many days did you have at least one drink containing alcohol?” | “During the past 12 months, how often have you felt worried?” | Cross-sectional | Worry was positively inked to alcohol use. There was not gender differences. |
| Pfefferbaum et al., 2002 | 84 participants interviewed 6 months after the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing (58 females, 24 males, and 2 individuals who did not indicated their sex, age ranged from 21 to 84) | Drinking status was assigned as one of three categories establishing the participant's relative alcohol use (nondrinker, drink but no increase, and increased drinking) since the bombing. The substance use increase variable was created from two categories. The category of ≪ no increase ≫ included participants who did not smoke/drink—and did not initiate use- and those who did not increase use of either substance. The ≪ increased ≫ category included participants who increased smoking and/or drinking |
The variable establishing worry about safety was the sum of two items measured on 4-point scales: ≪ I feel safe now ≫ and ≪ I worry that something will happen to my family ≫ | Cross-sectional | The increase in alcohol use was associated to worry about safety after the traumatic event. |
| Simons et al., 2016 | 274 undergraduate college students (56% females, M = 19.88, SD = 1.37, range 18–27) | Baseline measure: ADS (Skinner and Allen, 1982) Experience sampling measure: participants reported the number of drinks they consumed over the past 30 min on an 8-point scale (0–7 or more drinks) |
Trait assessment: three items assessed sadness rumination | Ecological sampling method | Rumination was positively linked to alcohol use The negative reinforcement effect of drinking on emotional inertia was only showed among girls. |
| Skitch and Abela, 2008 | 161 students (46% male and 54% females; Mage = 15; SD = 1.22, range: 12-18). | SMSM (Skitch and Abela, 2008)Items derived fromthe RAPI (White and Labouvie, 1989). | RSS (Connor-Smith et al., 2000) | Cross-sectional | Rumination in response to stress predicted both depressive symptoms and substance use problem. There was no gender differences. |
| Smith and Book, 2010 | 21 participants with diagnosis of alcohol use disorder (13 females; Mage = 40, SD = 13.51) and 18 comorbid alcohol use disorder and generalized anxiety disorder (9 females; Mage = 39.11, SD = 12.45) involved in outpatient substance abuse treatment program (N = 39). | SCID (First et al., 2002) | PSWQ (Meyer et al., 1990) | Cross-sectional | Worry was positively associated to alcohol use. Patients with comorbid AUD and GAD reported higher level of worry. |
| Winkeljohn Black et al., 2017 | 563 university students (80% female; Mage = 26.55, SD = 10.08). | AUDIT (Saunders et al., 1993) | ARS (Sukhodolsky et al., 2001) | Cross-sectional | Participants reported at-risk alcohol use without binge eating did not report increased levels of anger rumination. |
| Willem et al., 2011 | 189 participants from two Belgian secondary school (50.3% girls; Mage = 16.67, SD = 1.26, range 14.08– 19.83). | AUDIT (Saunders et al., 1993)RAPI (White and Labouvie, 1989) | RRS (Nolen-Hoeksema and Morrow, 1991) | Cross-sectional | Ruminative brooding was positively associated to substance use. Ruminative reflection may be protective among boys but not among girls. |
| Willem et al., 2014 | Time 1, 309 adolescents from Belgian secondary school participated, (192 boys; Mage = 16.82, SD = 1.32, range 13.8–20.8). At Time 2 (6 months later) and 3 (12 months later), 276 and 216 adolescents participated. |
Means of the first three questions of the AUDIT (Saunders et al., 1993) RAPI (White and Labouvie, 1989) |
RRS (Nolen-Hoeksema and Morrow, 1991) | Cross-sectional | Both ruminative brooding and reflection were only positively linked to substance use problem in girls, but brooding was negatively linked to alcohol use, independently of gender. |
| Winkeljohn Black et al., 2017 | 195 college students (63.4% females; Mage = 19.50, SD = 1.41). | DDQ (Collins et al., 1985) RAPI (White and Labouvie, 1989). |
RRS-R (Treynor et al., 2003) | Cross-sectional | Negative alcohol consequences were linked to increased ruminative brooding. |