A strength of this study and other intensive repeated-measure designs is the ability to model within-person state-based changes separately from between-person individual differences. At the within-person or day-by-day level, we found that the presence or absence of stress per day covaried with changes in craving levels for that day, which in turn predicted higher likelihood of drinking and higher alcohol amounts consumed for the following day. At the between-person or individual level, associations between stress, craving, and drinking were also similar, in that individuals exposed to more stressors were at risk for higher craving than their peers. In turn, individuals with high craving profiles were generally more likely to drink and consumed greater average number of drinks than low craving peers.
