Interactive effects of social anxiety and alcohol expectancies in the prediction of alcohol consumption

The present study examined the hypothesis that social anxiety and alcohol outcome expectancies interact to affect frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption. Two hundred twenty-nine undergraduates completed self-report questionnaires. The results show specificity in the interactive effect of social anxiety and positive stress-reduction expectancy on alcohol consumption: Expectancy of anxiety reduction in social situations moderated the relationship between social anxiety and alcohol consumption; no interactive effect was found between social anxiety and expectancy of general tension reduction. Among the subjects who indicated low socially relevant expectancy, high anxiety subjects reported lower frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption than low anxiety subjects. However, high and low anxiety subjects reporting high expectancy did not differ in their alcohol consumption. The results suggest that both positive and negative expectancies may influence social anxiety's relationship with alcohol consumption.