Sponsor
This work was supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, through the Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury Research Program under Award No. W81XWH-18-PHTBIRP-R2OE-TRA (PI Hammer). This work was also partly supported by the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences at Oregon Health & Science University via funds from the Division of Consumer and Business Services of the State of Oregon (ORS 656.630) and Grant #T03OH008435 awarded to Portland State University, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Published In
Behavioral Sciences
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-26-2025
Subjects
Psychology -- Servicemembers -- Case studies
Abstract
Links between loneliness and health are robust, though evidence for associations with alcohol use is mixed. Previous research has supported perceived stress as a predictor of alcohol use and as a pathway through which loneliness impacts health over time. Yet findings are primarily limited to civilian samples, and less is known about how loneliness relates to stress and health among service members. The current study explores prospective associations among loneliness, stress, and health (i.e., sleep, alcohol misuse, and psychological distress) within a sample of mostly male service members. We examine two dimensions of perceived stress, perceived helplessness and negative coping appraisal, as explanatory mechanisms. Controlling for baseline stress and health, loneliness predicted perceived helplessness and negative coping appraisal (4-month follow-up); in turn, perceived helplessness and negative coping appraisal predicted insomnia and sleep dissatisfaction; and negative coping appraisal predicted alcohol misuse (indirect effects). Findings support transactional models of stress and the stressor-vulnerability model of alcohol use, revealing that coping appraisals play an important explanatory role for stress-related consequences of loneliness. Further, we provide new insight into mechanisms linking loneliness to alcohol use and sleep, differentiating dimensions of stress and highlighting potential intervention targets.
Rights
Copyright: © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/).
Locate the Document
DOI
10.3390/bs15091240
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44148
Publisher
MDPI AG
Citation Details
Arpin, S. N., Mohr, C. D., Bodner, T. E., Hammer, L. B., & Lee, J. D. (2025). Prospective Associations Among Loneliness and Health for Servicemembers: Perceived Helplessness and Negative Coping Appraisal as Explanatory Mechanisms. Behavioral Sciences, 15(9), 1240.