Social anxiety symptoms and drinking behaviors among college students: The mediating effects of drinking motives.

Abstract

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.

The Relationship Between Social Anxiety and Alcohol and Marijuana Use Outcomes Among Concurrent Users: A Motivational Model of Substance Use

“…The etiology of co‐occurring social anxiety and substance use problems is commonly attributed to coping‐motivated substance use as an underlying mechanism (Buckner et al., ). Yet, prior investigations of alcohol or marijuana use have found that students with social anxiety experience more substance‐related problems based on both positively reinforcing (e.g., enhancement; Villarosa et al., ) and negatively reinforcing motives (e.g., conformity; Buckner et al., ,b). These inconsistencies may be due to the lack of attention to students who use both alcohol and marijuana (i.e., concurrent users).…”

Drinking identity as a mediator of the relationship between drinking motives and weekly alcohol consumption among heavy drinking undergraduate students

“…Conformity and coping motives are less frequently reported, but are consistently and more strongly associated with alcohol problems compared to social and enhancement motives (Kuntsche et al, 2005). Motives mediate the effect of alcohol expectancies on use (Williams & Clark, 1998), the effect of social anxiety on negative alcohol consequences (Villarosa, Madson, Zeigler-Hill, Noble, & Morn, 2014), and the effect of bullying on drinking (Archimi & Kuntsche, 2014). Further, motives moderate the effect of ambivalence on drinking (Foster, et al, 2014) and the effect of posttraumatic stress disorder on drinking (Simpson, Stappenbeck, Luterek, Lehavot, & Kaysen, 2014).…”

An evolutionary perspective on the co-occurrence of social anxiety disorder and alcohol use disorder

“…Indeed, approximately 80% of all AUD cases occur prior to 40 years of age (Eaton et al, 2012). Alcohol use among socially anxious individuals is usually much harder to control than in individuals reporting fewer social anxiety symptoms, and early drinking in order to cope is known to predict later alcohol misuse in adulthood (Blumenthal et al, 2010; Patrick et al, 2011; Villarosa et al, 2014). …”