Other investigations of stress, craving, and drug use (i.e., cocaine, heroin) have found that craving increases in the presence of stress, independent of drug cues (Jobes et al., 2011; 2018); in contrast, the relationship between stress and substance use has been less reliable (Furnari et al., 2015; Preston et al., 2018a). These previous results are consistent with our present findings in treatment engaged AUD individuals. We did not find that stressful events had a direct effect on alcohol use; rather, the effect of stress on next day alcohol intake was fully mediated via its effect on alcohol craving. Early mediation models were required to have a significant direct path between the predictor and dependent variable (Baron and Kenny, 1986), but researchers have made the case that this is not a necessary condition for testing indirect effects (Zhao et al., 2010). When our findings are taken together with previous research, stress influences substance use when it directly increases the urge to use. This is consistent with previous work from Furnari and colleagues (2015) that found stress occurrence alone was an inconsistent
