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Women whose sexual identity is not exclusively heterosexual are at risk for alcohol use disorder (AUD) and problematic drinking. A textual analytic approach focusing on motivated psychological distancing in language style use was used to detect sexual minority women who are at greatest risk for an AUD.

Young adult women (N = 254) were asked to complete a self-report measure of sexual orientation self-concept ambiguity as well as free-write about their sexuality. In addition, they completed a questionnaire assessing AUD symptoms according to criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. The Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program assessed language markers within participant-written essays that reflected acute states of aversive self-focus (i.e., fewer first-person pronouns, fewer present-tense verbs).

Drinking to cope with negative …