A Multiyear Daily Process Examination of Social Anxiety, Alcohol-Outcome Expectancies and Alcohol Use Among College Students

Abstract

Background. Expectancies of the positive and negative effects of drinking have been posited to be important moderators of the association between social anxiety and alcohol use. However, investigations of these interactive effects have not examined the moderating role of within-person daily variation in such expectancies. Methods. We used a multi-year micro-longitudinal design to examine the interactive relationship between social anxiety and daily changes in alcohol-outcome expectancies in predicting later-day drinking among college students (N = 537; 51.7% female). In a baseline survey participants reported on their social anxiety, then approximately two weeks later, they reported daily for 30 days on their tension reduction and impairment alcohol-outcome expectancies and their drinking level. We repeated this procedure for up to three additional years. Results. The probability of drinking and the amount consumed were higher on days characterized by high levels of tension-reduction and impairment expect...