The separate and interactive effects of drinking motives and social anxiety symptoms in predicting drinking outcomes (original) (raw)
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The role of drinking motives in social anxiety and alcohol use
Journal of anxiety disorders, 2007
Although social anxiety and problem drinking commonly co-occur, the relationship between social anxiety and drinking among college students is not well understood. The current study examined the relationship between drinking motives, or reasons for drinking, and social anxiety in 239 volunteers. Contrary to hypotheses, high (n = 83), moderate (n = 90), and low (n = 66) social anxiety groups did not differ in endorsement of coping and conformity drinking motives. Further, social anxiety was negatively related to weekly alcohol use and unrelated to alcohol-related problems. Post hoc hierarchical multiple regression analyses conducted for each social anxiety group indicated that coping motives were related to greater alcohol use and problems for those in the high and moderate social anxiety groups but not for the low social anxiety group. It appears that drinking motives, particularly coping motives, have promise in providing a greater understanding of the social anxietydrinking relationship. Drinking motives could aid in identification of socially anxious students at risk for alcohol problems and inform intervention strategies.
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 2014
The impact of social anxiety on negative alcohol-related behaviors among college students has been studied extensively. Drinking motives are considered the most proximal indicator of college student drinking behavior. The current study examined the mediating role of drinking motives in the relationship that social anxiety symptoms have with problematic (alcohol consumption, harmful drinking, and negative consequences) and safe (protective behavioral strategies) drinking behaviors. Participants were 532 undergraduates who completed measures of social anxiety, drinking motives, alcohol use, harmful drinking patterns, negative consequences of alcohol use, and protective behavioral strategy use. Our results show that students with higher levels of social anxiety symptoms who were drinking for enhancement motives reported more harmful drinking and negative consequences, and used fewer protective behavioral strategies. Thus, students who were drinking to increase their positive mood were participating in more problematic drinking patterns compared with students reporting fewer social anxiety symptoms. Further, conformity motives partially mediated the relationship between social anxiety symptoms and negative consequences. Thus, students with more symptoms of social anxiety who were drinking in order to be accepted by their peers were more likely than others to experience negative consequences. Clinical and research implications are discussed.
CRITICAL REVIEW OF DRINKING MOTIVES BETWEEN SOCIAL ANXIETY AND ALCOHOL USE
Drinking alcohol becomes a trend when social fear becomes a threat. The relaxing effect of alcohol on the central nervous system, its unconstrained and empowering effects of social impulses, and its perceived beneficial or recovery action on physical and emotional pain are often suggested as reasons why people begin and maintain their drinking behavior, despite knowing its abuse, potential side effects, and medium-to long-term ill effects on health. The purpose of this review is to address the role of drinking motives in predicting alcohol use among normal and socially anxious population and its mediating effect in the relationship between social anxiety and alcohol use. Variables analyzed included prevalence, gender, personality trait, drinking motives, and self-medication hypothesis. Through this paper, a brief understanding gained into how people with and without social anxiety caters their fear to events that challenges their social image. It is highly suggestible that social anxiety has a positive relationship with alcohol use; which mediated by drinking motives, particularly, social, conformity and coping motives. Self-medication hypothesis too were found to be playing a major role in predicting alcohol consumption, especially among people who were tending to drink to cope with unpleasant emotions both before and after the social events. It has been seen more common among women than their opposite sex as women react more intensely to emotional stimuli than men. Even though this review paper gave a unique glimpse on the association between social anxiety, drinking motives and alcohol use; the interaction between these variable with genders and alcohol-related components (as mentioned in the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test) are remaining complex and inconclusive. Future research is necessary to determine how this knowledge can be incorporated into prevention and intervention programs for the group at-risk. ______________________________________________________________________________
Social anxiety and motives for alcohol use among adolescents
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 2010
Social anxiety evidences significant comorbidity with alcohol use disorders and alcohol-related problems. In an effort to better understand this co-occurrence, researchers are beginning to evaluate specific drinking-related factors, including alcohol use motives, among socially anxious individuals. Drawing upon Cooper's (1994) four-factor model of drinking motives (enhancement, social, conformity, coping), a growing body of work suggests that socially anxious individuals may consume alcohol in an effort to cope with their anxious symptoms; however, no study to date has examined these relations among youth. Accordingly, the current study examined alcohol use motives as a function of social anxiety in a community-based sample of 50 adolescents ages 12-17 years (M age = 16.35, SD = 1.10). As predicted, heightened social anxiety was associated with elevated copingrelated drinking motives. Importantly, other alcohol-use motives did not vary as a function of social anxiety. Collectively, these findings uniquely extend research conducted with adults, and suggest socially anxious youth may be motivated to use alcohol to manage their anxious arousal.
Personality and Individual Differences, 2001
We examined whether certain``risky'' drinking motives mediate the previously established relation between elevated anxiety sensitivity (AS) and increased drinking behavior in college student drinkers (n=109 women, 73 men). Speci®cally, we administered the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI), Revised Drinking Motives Questionnaire, and a quantity-frequency measure of typical drinking levels. Participants were parceled according to high (n=30), moderate (n=29), and low (n=34) AS levels. As expected, high AS participants reported a higher typical weekly drinking frequency than the low and moderate AS students regardless of gender. Similarly, high AS participants (particularly high AS men) reported a higher yearly excessive drinking frequency than low AS students. Only the negative reinforcement motives of Coping and Conformity were found to independently mediate the relations between AS and increased drinking behavior in the total sample. High AS women's greater drinking behavior was largely explained by their elevated Coping Motives, while heightened Conformity Motives explained the increased drinking behavior of high AS men. Finally, associations between AS and increased drinking behavior in university students were largely attributable to the``social concerns'' component of the ASI. We discuss the observed relations with respect to the psychological functions of drinking behavior that may portend the development of alcohol problems in young adult high AS men and women.
College drinking problems and social anxiety: The importance of drinking context
2014
Social anxiety more than quadruples the risk of developing an alcohol use disorder, yet it is inconsistently linked to heavy alcohol use. Elucidation of the relation between social anxiety and alcohol use is an important next step in treating and preventing risky drinking. College students routinely face potentially anxiety-provoking social situations (e.g., meeting new people) and socially anxious undergraduates are especially vulnerable to alcohol-related impairment. Drinking to cope with social anxiety is thought to reinforce alcohol use, yet research on coping-motivated drinking among socially anxious students has yielded inconsistent findings. Further, undergraduate drinking varies by drinking context, yet the role of context in drinking behaviors among socially anxious individuals remains unclear. The current study sought to examine the relationship of social anxiety and drinking quantity in specific drinking contexts among undergraduates (N ϭ 611). We also evaluated whether relevant drinking contexts mediated the relationship between social anxiety and alcohol-related problems. Clinically elevated social anxiety was related to heavier consumption in negative emotion (e.g., feeling sad or angry) and personal/intimate (e.g., before sexual intercourse) contexts, but not social/convivial contexts (e.g., parties, bars). Quantity of alcohol consumed in negative emotion and personal/intimate contexts mediated the relationship between social anxiety and drinking problem severity. Drinking in personal/intimate contexts demonstrated a unique mediational role. Findings suggest that heavy drinking in particular contexts (especially personal/intimate and negative emotion) may play an important role in drinking problems among socially anxious individuals.
Addictive Behaviors, 2009
The current study tested the hypotheses that drinking to cope motives and alcohol expectancies of tensionand worry-reduction mediate the relationship between generalized anxiety (GA) and negative-affect heavy drinking in a cross-sectional sample of 782 college drinkers. As expected, structural equation modeling results indicated that alcohol expectancies mediated the relationship between GA and drinking to cope motives, and drinking to cope motives mediated the relationship between alcohol expectancies and heavy drinking in negative-affect situations. Unexpectedly, drinking to cope motives also mediated the relationship between GA and negative-affect heavy drinking. The model predicting negative-affect heavy drinking was tested in subsamples of 413 hazardous and 366 nonhazardous drinkers and did not differ structurally; however, omnibus measurement of model indirect effects was stronger for hazardous than nonhazardous drinkers. Finally, the results of a similar post-hoc model to predict general problem drinking support the specificity of the interrelationships among GA, cognitive mediators and to negative-affect drinking. These results inform cognitive-behavioral theories and interventions for comorbid GA and alcohol use problems.
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 2008
The present research was conducted to clarify the relationships among social anxiety, alcohol consumption, alcohol-related problems, and negative-reinforcement drinking motives among college students. Heavy drinking students (N ϭ 316, 53.80% female) completed self-report measures of social anxiety, alcohol consumption, alcohol-related problems, and drinking motives. Findings indicated that students higher in social anxiety consumed less alcohol but experienced more negative consequences. Moreover, the relationship between social anxiety and negative consequences was mediated by coping and conformity drinking motives in addition to alcohol consumption. In the context of social anxiety, the current research demonstrates the importance of examining problematic drinking as distinct constructs: alcohol consumption and negative consequences. Findings are also discussed in terms of implications for interventions with socially anxious students.