DEPRESSION AND DRINKING BEHAVIOR AMONG WOMEN AND MEN - A 3-WAVE LONGITUDINAL-STUDY OF OLDER ADULTS

This 3-wave longitudinal study analyzed latent variable cross-lagged m odels of the relation between depressive symptoms and drinking behavio r separately for 621 late-middle-aged women and 951 late-middle-aged m en. Time lags of 1 and 3 years were used. Among women, heavier alcohol consumption predicted less depressive symptomatology 1 and 3 years la ter, whereas among men, having more depressive symptoms predicted less alcohol consumption later on. Including cross-temporal paths in the w omen's depression-drinking problems model did not provide a significan t improvement over hypothesizing no cross-temporal effects. Among men, however, having more drinking problems was associated with fewer depr essive symptoms 3 years later. These findings were robust in follow-up analyses controlling for the effects of socioeconomic and health stat us.