ALCOHOL-CONSUMPTION IN A TIME OF MACROSOCIAL STRESS - MIGRATION, SOCIAL-ISOLATION, AND ANGER AS RISK-FACTORS

A three-wave panel study was conducted to monitor psychosocial changes in East Germans during a disturbing political transition when the com munist system collapsed. Two hundred and fourteen East Germans who mig rated to West Berlin in 1989 were studied for two years and compared t o 224 East Germans in Saxonia who did not migrate. The general researc h question of the present analysis was to what degree life changes wer e reflected by changes in alcohol consumption. Women drank almost no a lcohol, whereas men unveiled disparate drinking habits depending on va rious risk factors. Migrating men reduced their alcohol consumption af ter resettlement. Having an intimate partner or spouse was associated with less drinking in the subsample of those who stayed behind. Trait anger emerged as a risk factor, except for men after resettlement. The data are discussed in terms of coping and adaptation during stressful life challenges.