Short CommunicationThe separate and interactive effects of drinking motives and social anxiety symptoms in predicting drinking outcomes
Highlights
► The Anxiety x Motives interaction did not consistently predict drinking outcomes. ► Social anxiety was associated with greater coping and conformity motives. ► Social anxiety was associated with less endorsement of enhancement motives. ► Greater social anxiety symptoms were related to less alcohol consumption.
Introduction
The social demands of college coupled with easy access to alcohol places college students at an elevated risk for utilizing substances (Ham & Hope, 2005). In addition, although individuals with social anxiety consume less alcohol than their non-socially anxious peers (Ham et al., 2009, Lewis et al., 2008, Stewart et al., 2006), individuals with high (vs. low) social anxiety may actually experience more adverse consequences from drinking alcohol (Buckner et al., 2006, Gilles et al., 2006, Stewart et al., 2006). In other words, for the subset of college students who are socially anxious and who engage in hazardous drinking, the associated consequences of drinking may be particularly problematic.
According to Cox and Klinger, 1988, Cox and Klinger, 1990, drinking behavior can be conceptualized as existing along two primary dimensions—valence and source (see also Cooper, 1994). Crossing intrinsic/extrinsic motivation with positive/negative reinforcement results in four potential drinking motives: 1) coping motives, or drinking to alleviate negative affect (negative/intrinsic motivation); 2) conformity motives, or drinking to avoid being rejected socially (negative/extrinsic motivation); 3) enhancement motives, or drinking to heighten positive affect (positive/intrinsic motivation); and 4) social motives, or drinking to maximize positive social rewards (positive/extrinsic motivation).
There is some evidence that drinking motives may differentially interact with social anxiety symptoms to affect drinking behavior and outcomes. Ham, Bonin, and Hope (2007) found that for individuals high and moderate in social anxiety, higher coping motives were significantly related to greater alcohol consumption and more alcohol-relevant problems. Meanwhile, for individuals low (but not moderate or high) in social anxiety, higher enhancement motives were significantly related to greater drinking consumption. While these findings are important for understanding the relationship between social anxiety, motives, and alcohol use and problems, they fail to clarify the extent to which motives moderate the impact of social anxiety symptoms on drinking outcomes. Specifically, all elements of the interaction between social anxiety symptoms and drinking motives have not been thoroughly investigated.
The goal of the present study was to test the separate and interactive effects of social anxiety and each of four drinking motives in predicting alcohol use and alcohol-related problems in a sample of college students. We predicted that anxiety level would moderate the relationship between coping motives and drinking outcomes, such that coping motives would be more strongly related to alcohol use for individuals high (vs. low) in social anxiety symptoms (Ham et al., 2007). In other words, we expected that drinking to alleviate negative affect (i.e., coping) would have a stronger relationship with the drinking outcomes among people who are more socially anxious (i.e., have higher negative affect to begin with). Conversely, we expected that enhancement motives (i.e., those that are extrinsic and positively reinforcing) would have a stronger relationship with drinking outcomes among participants low (vs. high) in social anxiety symptoms. We expected a similar relationship for anxiety and social motives.
Section snippets
Participants
Participants were enrolled prior to the start of their first year of college at one college and two universities in the Northeast, and completed an online survey one year later at the end of their first year of college. Only participants who reported they drank alcohol in the preceding 12 months (measured at the end of the first year) were included in this study (N = 730; 59.7% Female; Mean age = 18.35, SD = 0.47). Race or ethnicity in the final sample was reported as 66.2% White, 10.7% Asian, 7.0%
Results
The four drinking motives variables were significantly correlated to one another in a positive direction. Great social anxiety was associated with more coping and conformity motives, and less enhancement motives (Table 1).
Discussion
We found two significant interactions. First, as expected, we found that alcohol use was most pronounced for individuals high in enhancement motives and low in social anxiety symptoms. One interpretation is that positively reinforcing motives (e.g., enhancement) may be more strongly related to drinking among individuals low (relative to high) in social anxiety symptoms. The other significant interaction was the Coping Motives/Social Anxiety interaction in the Drinking Problems model. Contrary
Conclusions
Findings from the present study suggest that the main effects of social anxiety symptoms and drinking motives are more influential in predicting drinking outcomes than the interaction between these two independent variables. There was also some evidence that negatively reinforcing drinking motives (i.e., coping and conformity) may be more relevant for individuals who are high in social anxiety symptoms, relative to positively reinforcing drinking motives (i.e., enhancement and social). This
Role of funding sources
This investigation was supported in part by research grant R01AA13970 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) to the second author. This research was also supported by a T32 postdoctoral research fellowship (T32 AA07459) through NIAAA, awarded to the first author.
Contributors
This manuscript represents a collaborative effort on behalf of Drs. Clerkin and Barnett. Both authors contributed to, reviewed, and edited the manuscript.
Conflict of interest
Both authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest associated with this manuscript.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the research staff and postdoctoral fellows who assisted in this research. We are particularly grateful for the helpful feedback on this manuscript provided by Joshua Magee, Ph.D.
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