Reciprocal longitudinal associations between anxiety sensitivity and alcohol consumption/problems across adolescence: Examining anxiety as a mediator and race/ethnicity as a moderator

Abstract

The conditions and populations for which anxiety sensitivity (AS; i.e., the tendency to interpret unpleasant physiological sensations as dangerous) relates to adolescent alcohol use is unclear. This study tested latent-variable cross-lagged panel modeling of AS-alcohol relations in a racially/ethnically heterogenous longitudinal youth cohort (N = 3396; 53.4% female, 45.8% Latinx) assessed annually across high school. Anxiety and race/ethnicity were tested as mediators and moderators, respectively, of AS-alcohol associations. AS prospectively predicted alcohol problems (β′s = 0.05–0.07) but not alcohol consumption (β′s = 0.02–0.04) across high school. Alcohol problems predicted AS at the end (β = 0.09) but not beginning (β′s = 0.01–0.03) of high school and alcohol consumption predicted lower AS at the beginning (β = −0.06) but not end (β′s = −0.02-0.01) of high school. Anxiety mediated AS's predictive effects on alcohol problems (βindirect's = 0.01, 95% CI [0.003, 0.03]) across high school. Race/ethnicity did not moderate interrelations of AS, anxiety, and alcohol outcomes. These findings lend support to the risk factor model of AS on alcohol problems (but not consumption) through anxiety and the scar/complication model whereby alcohol problems may exacerbate AS later in adolescence. Addressing reciprocal risk processes between AS, anxiety, and alcohol problems warrant consideration in adolescent behavioral health promotion for various racial/ethnic populations.