Economic Stressors, Alcohol Use, and Health-Related Quality of Life in Middle-aged Adults

Authors

Kristin L. Moilanen, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Judith A. Richman, University of Illinois at Chicago
Kathleen M. Rospenda, University of Illinois at Chicago
Timothy P. Johnson, University of Illinois at Chicago

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

4-2025

Citation

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology (2025) 97: 101752

doi: 10.1016/j.appdev.2024.101752

Comments

Open access

License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Abstract

The present study explored associations between individual economic stressors, community disadvantage, alcohol use, and physical and mental health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in middle adulthood. We analyzed two waves of survey and census tract data from a national sample of N = 1359 adults ages 40–61 (65.0% women). High economic stress was associated with poor physical and mental HRQoL, and high community disadvantage was linked to poor physical HRQoL only. High alcohol use predicted high physical and mental HRQoL, and low misuse predicted high mental HRQoL only. There was no evidence of mediation, and gender, age, and race moderated a subset of model paths. The discussion considers future directions for research and implications for social policy.