Anxiety sensitivity and social affiliation as determinants of alcohol consumption

Abstract

An accumulating body of evidence suggests that individuals high in anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of anxiety symptoms) may be at heightened risk for alcohol problems. Our study was designed to validate differences in self-reported drinking motives and contexts between high and low AS individuals using analogue methods. Participants were nonclinical young adults who scored high (n = 26) or low (n = 26) on the Anxiety Sensitivity Index. Participants were exposed to a social affiliative context manipulation where they played the same game, either alone (solitary context) or with two confederates (social context), followed by a mock beverage taste-rating task which provided an unobstrusive measure of ad-lib alcohol consumption. As predicted, high AS-solitary participants consumed significantly more alcohol as compared to high AS-social and low AS-solitary participants. Unexpectedly, high AS-social participants also consumed significantly more nonalcoholic control beverages as compared to high AS-social and low AS-solitary participants. However, only alcoholic beverage consumption was marginally positively correlated with negative affect scores and only for high AS participants. These results provide preliminary validation of previous self-report findings suggesting the use of high ASI scores as a potential marker for a pattern of context-dependent drinking that is associated with problematic alcohol use. We discuss some specific implications of our findings for prevention of the development of drinking problems, and the relevance of laboratory research for advancing behavior therapy in general.