Positive Social Alcohol Outcome Expectancies, Social Anxiety, and Hazardous Drinking in College Students (original) (raw)
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College alcohol drinking is a public health concern worldwide. A line of research indicates that higher social anxiety is associated with more severe college drinking. However, other studies reveal a protective role of social anxiety against alcohol drinking in college students. Attempting to reconcile contradictory findings, we examined the hypothesis that there are multiple antagonistic pathways that could explain the social anxiety-college drinking relationship. In addition, there may be individual difference variables that moderate these processes. Furthermore, it was expected that the processes could vary as a function of the alcohol drinking outcomes examined. Expectancy theory emphasizes the role of alcohol outcome expectancies in alcohol drinking. Thus, in the present study we tested whether global positive and negative alcohol outcome expectancies partially mediate the relationship between social anxiety, alcohol consumption, and alcohol-related problems in a sample of 245 university students. We also examined the moderating role of gender in these mediating processes. Results revealed parallel but oppositional processes. Higher social anxiety was associated with heavier alcohol drinking and more serious alcohol-related problems via stronger positive alcohol outcome expectancies. However, the mediating role of positive alcohol outcome expectancies varied as a function of gender. It appears that in female students the mediating effect of positive alcohol outcome expectancies was stronger than in male students. On the other hand, higher social anxiety had a protective role against alcohol consumption but not against alcohol-related problems via stronger negative alcohol outcome expectancies. Finally, there was an inverse direct relationship between social anxiety and alcohol consumption. Keywords College alcohol drinking · Social anxiety · Alcohol outcome expectancies · University/college students · Indirect effect and moderated mediation
Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 2004
Previous work suggests that social anxiety is inconsistently related to alcohol use. To further explore this relationship, alcohol outcome expectancies were evaluated as potential moderator and mediators in a large sample (N ¼ 284) of college undergraduates. The expectancy variables included positive and negative alcohol outcome expectancies as well as expectancies specific to social facilitation. Consistent with a self-presentation model of shyness, social anxiety was related to decreased drinking. Interestingly, social anxiety was associated with increased positive as well as increased negative expectancies. There was not support for moderator or mediator effects. Consistent with prior work, social facilitation expectancies appear to operate as a suppressor variable in the relationship between social anxiety and alcohol use. #
Incorporating social anxiety into a model of college student problematic drinking
Addictive Behaviors, 2005
College problem drinking and social anxiety are significant public health concerns with highly negative consequences. College students are faced with a variety of novel social situations and situations encouraging alcohol consumption. The current study involved developing a path model of college problem drinking, including social anxiety, in 316 college students referred to an alcohol intervention due to a campus alcohol violation. Contrary to hypotheses, social anxiety generally had an inverse relationship with problem drinking. As expected, perceived drinking norms had important positive, direct effects on drinking variables. However, the results generally did not support the hypotheses regarding the mediating or moderating function of the valuations of expected effects and provided little support for the mediating function of alcohol expectancies in the relations among social anxiety and alcohol variables. Therefore, it seems that the influence of peers may be more important for college students than alcohol expectancies and valuations of alcohol's effects are. College students appear to be a unique population in respect to social anxiety and problem drinking. The implications of these results for college prevention and intervention programs were discussed.
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.
2018
The relationship between alcohol consumption and social anxiety is difficult to understand, as there have been mixed findings in the research. In general, a positive correlation has been found between the two, with a focus on the mediating effect of alcohol outcome expectancies. Both positive expectancies and trauma have been correlated positively with social anxiety and drinking behavior. This paper reviews the literature and examines the relationship between social anxiety and alcohol consumption. A mediated model between these two variables with the mediators being alcohol expectancies and traumatic experiences was proposed, but this model did not fit the date. Specifically, we did not find a correlation between social anxiety and drinking behavior. Thus, we did exploratory analyses using forward regression to test the predictive abilities of drinking behavior, alcohol expectancies and trauma experience for social anxiety. We found that negative alcohol expectancies and trauma ex...
Addictive Behaviors, 2006
[Burke, R.S., Stephens, R.S. Social anxiety and drinking in college students: A social cognitive theory analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 19, (1999) 513-530.] proposed a social cognitive theory of heavy drinking in college students. According to this theory, alcohol expectancies for social facilitation and self-efficacy for refusing heavy drinking in anxiety-producing social situations moderate the relationship between social anxiety and drinking. In the current study, a significant three-way interaction was observed among social anxiety, expectancies, and self-efficacy when amount and frequency of drinking was the dependent variable. As predicted by the model, socially anxious college students with low self-efficacy for avoiding heavy drinking in social situations and high positive expectancies for social facilitation reported more alcohol consumption than other socially anxious individuals. D
Addictive Behaviors, 2012
Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………. i List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………... ii List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………..iii Chapter 1…………………………………………………………………………………... 1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………...1 Comorbidity of Hazardous Drinking and Social Anxiety…………………………..1 Potential Cognitive Mediators of Alcohol Brief Interventions………………….…. 3 The Current Study…………………………………………………………………….…6 Chapter 2………………………………………………………………………………….. 7 Method………………………………………………………………………………….. 7 Participants…………………………………………………………………………. 7 Measures…………………………………………………………………………… 8 Alcohol use……………………………………………………………………... 8 Alcohol problems………………………………………………………………. 8 Alcohol expectancies in social evaluative situations………………………..…. 9 Drink refusal self-efficacy relevant to social situations……………………..…. 9 Structured diagnostic interview……………………………………..………… 10 Procedure…………………………………………………………………………..10 Screening……………………...……………………………………..………... 10 Outcome and mediator assessment…………………………………………….11 Study interventions…………………………………………………………….11 Data analysis……………………………………………………………………… 12 Chapter 3…………………………………………………………………………………. 14 Results…………………………………………………………………………………14 Alcohol expectancies in social evaluative situations as a mediator in alcohol use and related problems….………………………………………………………….. 15 Total quantity of alcohol consumption……………………………………...…15 Total heavy drinking days…………………………………………………….. 16 Drinking related problems……………………………………………………..17 Drink refusal self-efficacy relevant to social situations as a mediator in alcohol use and related problems………………………………………...………………...17 Total quantity of alcohol consumption……………………………………...…17 Total heavy drinking days…………………………………………………….. 18 Drinking related problems……………………………………………………..19 Suppressor variable…………………………………………...………………. 19 Chapter 4…………………………………………………………………………….…… 21 Discussion………………………………………………………………………..…… 21 Study findings and relevant literature…………………………………………. 21 Theoretical implications…………………………..……………………………… 24 Clinical implications……………………………………………………………… 25 Strengths, limitations, and future directions……………………………………. 26 References………………………………………………………………………...…..….. 28 Stinson, Ogburn, & Grant, 2007). As many as 44% of college students reported heavy drinking in the past two weeks (Wechsler, 2002) and alcohol use disorders specific to this young adult population are associated with significant social impairment such as impaired educational functioning (Aertgeerts & Buntinx, 2002), direct psychological impairment such as increased aggressiveness and indirect financial costs such as injury (Hingson, Heeren, Winter, & Wechsler, 2005). Social anxiety or discomfort is among the common reasons for college drinking (Buckner, Schmidt, & Eggelston, 2006). Social anxiety can compound the psychosocial and financial costs of alcohol use problems, especially among those whose anxiety is chronic and clinically severe therefore prevention efforts are key
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 2014
The link between social anxiety and alcohol-related negative consequences among college students has been well documented. Protective behavioral strategies are cognitive-behavioral strategies that college students use in an effort to reduce harm while they are drinking. In the current study we examined the mediating role of the 2 categories of protective behavioral strategies (i.e., controlled consumption and serious harm reduction) in the relationship that social anxiety symptoms have with alcohol-related negative consequences. Participants were 572 undergraduates who completed measures of social anxiety, alcohol use, negative consequences of alcohol use, and protective behavioral strategy use. Only serious harm reduction strategies emerged as a mediator of the association that social anxiety symptoms had with alcohol-related negative consequences. Clinical and research implications are discussed.
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.