Alcohol Expectancies Research Articles

Do different drinks make you feel different emotions? Examination of young adolescents’ beverage-specific alcohol expectancies using the Alcohol Expectancy Task

The aim of this paper is to explore whether in the eyes of young adolescents the consumption of different alcoholic beverages is associated with different alcohol expectancies, namely beliefs on what emotional outcomes take place when alcohol is consumed. 283 nine to 12-year olds from Switzerland completed the Alcohol Expectancy Task (AET). Participants were asked to assign one of 12 beverages (four alcoholic, eight non-alcoholic) to 16 adults depicting four emotional states (happy, angry, relaxed, sad). General linear modelling was used to examine beverage attributions across the four different emotional states. Beer was the most commonly attributed beverage across all 16 adults depicted. Happy and angry persons were most commonly attributed beer. Gender variations were found for relaxed persons, with females predominantly attributed champagne and males predominantly attributed beer. Young adolescents predominantly gave white wine to sad persons. Findings reveal a level of nuanced knowledge existing among young adolescents with minimal drinking experience, in that they hold very different expectancies for different beverages, prompting for future investigations to examine beverage-specific expectancies. Furthermore, findings showing beverage-specific expectancies among young adolescents may have implications for researchers’ considerations of how alcohol-related knowledge and expectancies develop throughout childhood.

Effects of Observable Parent Alcohol Consequences and Parent Alcohol Disorder on Adolescent Alcohol Expectancies.

Parental drinking and parent alcohol use disorder (AUD) are known predictors of adolescent positive alcohol expectancies, but their link to negative expectancies is unclear. Research suggests that parent drinking may indirectly predict adolescent expectancies through exposure to parental drinking events. However, exposure to parent negative alcohol consequences may be more relevant to adolescents' expectancies. The present study tested the mediating effect of parent observable negative alcohol consequences in the association between parent AUD and adolescent expectancies. This study used parent and adolescent data from the Adult and Family Development Project. A total of 581 adolescents reported on their alcohol expectancies across 2 waves of data, and their parents reported on potentially observable alcohol-related negative consequences during the first wave. Past-year and lifetime parent AUD were assessed with diagnostic interviews across 6 waves of data. Mothers' observable consequences mediated the effect of her past-year AUD on adolescent negative expectancies in adolescence, but this effect did not hold at a 1.5-year follow-up. Mothers' lifetime AUD was the only prospective predictor of later adolescent negative expectancies. No father drinking variables predicted expectancies, and all models were invariant across child biological sex. Finally, older adolescent age prospectively predicted higher positive expectancies, whereas the adolescents' own drinking predicted lower negative expectancies. These findings, in line with other recent studies, suggest that exposure to mothers' negative experiences with alcohol may counterintuitively normalize negative alcohol effects. This may paradoxically increase risk for adolescents rather than buffering the effects of a family history of parental AUD.

Alcohol expectancies mediate the association between the neural response to emotional words and alcohol consumption

BackgroundBoth positive expectancies regarding the effects of alcohol and internalizing problems, including negative emotionality and deficits in emotion regulation, are known risk factors for alcohol use disorder (AUD). The current study is the first to investigate how neural response to emotional stimuli may impact alcohol expectancies and risk for AUD. MethodsFunctional neuroimaging data was collected during an emotional word task from 168 emerging adults (M age = 19.65; 66% male). Activation to negative versus neutral words and positive versus neutral words was extracted for analyses. Participants also reported on their alcohol expectancies and information regarding alcohol use and problems was collected prospectively throughout adolescence and into adulthood (up to age 30). ResultsDecreased activation in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) to negative versus neutral words was associated with increased post-scan alcohol consumption, measured as average drinks per year. There was a significant indirect effect of positive alcohol expectancies on the association between IFG activation and post-scan alcohol consumption, even when controlling for quantity of alcohol consumption prior to the scan. ConclusionsThese results are the first to provide evidence that positive alcohol expectancies account for variance shared between brain regions associated with emotion processing and increased drinking behaviors. Alcohol expectancies may provide a modifiable target for treatments to decrease the link between deficits in emotion regulation and increased alcohol use.

Temperament in the prediction of proximal versus distal expectancies: An acquired preparedness model.

In the acquired preparedness model of risk, alcohol expectancies mediate the association between personality and alcohol problems. In the current study, we tested the associations between temperament (i.e., effortful control and reactivity) and temperament-congruent expectancies of distal and proximal effects. It was hypothesized that effortful control would be inversely associated with drinking and problems and that these effects would be mediated through consequence expectancies. Alternatively, it was hypothesized that reactivity would be positively associated with drinking and problems and that these effects would be mediated by expectancies of immediate stimulation and attenuated sedation. This article presents data from a multiple group analyses with 483 young adults (76% female) from a university in the Midwest (n = 209) and Amazon's Mechanical Turk (n = 274). The hypotheses were partially supported. Reactivity was associated with expectancies of stimulation, which were associated with increased weekly drinking and problems. Reactivity was associated with increased weekly drinking and problems and this association was partially indirect through stimulating expectancies. Reactivity did not significantly predict sedating expectancies. The indirect effects from effortful control through consequence expectancies were not significant. There were curvilinear effects from consequence expectancies to drinking and problems. Specifically, the effect from consequence expectancies to drinking and problems was positive at low levels of expectancies, but became negative and significant at mean levels and above. Results of the invariance testing indicated that the model manifested similarly across university and MTurk respondents. These implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A Daily-Level Analysis of Moderators of the Association between Alcohol Expectancies and Alcohol Use among College Student Drinkers

Background: Alcohol expectancies, or the perceived likelihood of experiencing certain effects after consuming alcohol, are associated with college student drinking such that heavier drinkers expect a greater likelihood of positive effects. However, less is known as to whether day-to-day within-person deviations in expectancies are associated with drinking that same day and for whom and when these associations may be strongest. Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine daily-level associations of positive and negative alcohol expectancies with alcohol use, and whether associations differed according to demographic characteristics and additional alcohol-related constructs. Methods: College student drinkers (N = 327, 53.8% female) participated in an intensive longitudinal study that captured daily-level data. Alcohol use and expectancy measures were utilized from a baseline session and at the daily-level using Interactive Voice Response (IVR). Results: Results found that on days when participants reported stronger positive and negative expectancies than their average, they were more likely to drink as well as consume more alcohol when drinking. Moderation analyses revealed that positive expectancies were more positively associated with the likelihood of any drinking for women relative to men, and more positively associated with the quantity of alcohol consumption for younger students, students with lower baseline rates of drinking, and students with greater overall positive alcohol expectancies. Conclusions/Importance: The findings demonstrate that alcohol expectancies fluctuate within-person across days and these fluctuations are meaningful in predicting same-day drinking. Interventions that seek to modify expectancies proximal to drinking events may be considered to reduce college student drinking.

The changing relation between alcohol and life expectancy in Russia in 1965-2017.

Introduction and AimsIn the 1990s, a strong inverse relationship between life expectancy (LE) in Russia and mortality from alcohol poisoning was observed. This association is remarkable as this cause accounts for less than 2% of deaths each year. It can be explained by treating the alcohol poisoning mortality as the best available measure in Russia of the population prevalence of harmful drinking in any year which in turn associated with mortality from a wide range of causes. This study analyses the evolving relationship of LE with this mortality‐based measure of harmful drinking since 1965, and places it in a policy context.Design and MethodsWe examine three periods: 1965–1984, a period of gradual LE decline; 1984–2003, a period of massive LE fluctuations; and 2003–2017, a period of LE improvement. Pearson's correlation coefficients and a linear relationship between annual changes in LE and alcohol poisoning were estimated for each period.ResultsThe strongest negative correlation between changes in LE and alcohol poisonings was found in 1984–2003. Over the period 2003–2017 a consistent positive LE trend emerged that was statistically independent of alcohol poisoning.Discussion and ConclusionsThese results suggest that in the period from the mid‐2000s a growth of LE in Russia was to a large extent independent of changes in the population prevalence of harmful drinking. While there has been a reduction in mortality at ages 15–64, at older ages mortality reduction unrelated to alcohol has become an increasingly important driver of overall mortality improvements.

Childhood social context in relation to alcohol expectancy through early adolescence: A latent profile approach

BackgroundThe present study aims to (i) identify patterns in the changes of endorsed positive alcohol expectancies (AEs) through early adolescence and (ii) examine associated childhood social context predictors of such profiles. MethodsWe used three waves of longitudinal data from the Alcohol-Related Experiences among Children. The baseline sample comprised 928 6th graders from 17 elementary schools in northern Taiwan (response rate = 60 %); subsequent follow-up was conducted at 7th and 8th grade (follow-up rate = 88 %). Data concerning three domains of positive AEs (i.e., global positive transformation, enhancing social behaviors, and promoting relaxation), social context, and alcohol drinking were collected by self-administered questionnaires. Longitudinal latent profile and survey multinomial logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate the association estimates, stratified by childhood alcohol initiation. ResultsThree distinct profiles (decreasing, stable, and increasing) of positive AEs were identified for the alcohol-naïve children (n = 466); observing paternal drinking and watching TV more than two hours per day at baseline were strongly linked with the stable and increasing AE profiles (aOR = 1.96–4.80). For the alcohol-experienced children, four profiles (low decreasing, low increasing, high decreasing, and high increasing) emerged; observing maternal drinking was predictive for the high-increasing profile (aOR = 2.94). Regardless of childhood alcohol initiation, recent alcohol use appeared to be the strongest predictor for the increasing profiles of positive AEs. ConclusionsStrategies addressing pro-alcohol social contexts that facilitate a prominent increase in positive AEs should be considered when devising preventive programs targeting underage drinking behaviors and problems.

Shaping Alcohol Health Literacy: A Systematic Concept Analysis and Review.

Background:This study uses an innovative methodology to understand the implications of applying the emerging concept of health literacy to other contexts using the example of alcohol.Methods:An evolutionary concept analysis combined with the principles and standards of the systematic review process enables a rigorous analysis of the conceptual representation of alcohol health literacy.Key Results:Alcohol health literacy includes a wide range of attributes that encompass many different health literacies beyond simply the capacity to understand alcohol-related harms and use that information in decision-making. Alcohol health literacy empowers people to understand alcohol marketing and messages and how alcohol information is distributed through social networks. It is an outcome of media-related alcohol education, and its consequences include health action skills and realistic expectancies of alcohol.Discussion:The focus on health literacy, which emphasizes not only individual skills but also draws attention to the social determinants of alcohol use and how alcohol health literacy is shaped by social networks and interactions, provides important lessons for alcohol health promotion interventions. Health literacy when applied to alcohol includes many different domains and the innovative method used here provides a framework to develop interventions that build health literacy in different contexts. [HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2020;4(1):e3–e20.]

Relations among Externalizing Behaviors, Alcohol Expectancies and Alcohol Use Problems in a Multi-Ethnic Sample of Middle and High School Students.

Background:Alcohol expectancies and externalizing behaviors, that is, aggression and rule-breaking behaviors, are associated with underage alcohol use. The interactive influence of these risk factors on problem alcohol use among minority adolescents is investigated in the present study.Objectives:This study examined the unique and interactive influences of alcohol expectancies and externalizing problems on specific measures of adolescents’ (a) past three-month binge drinking episodes and (b) negative consequences of alcohol use.Methods:Cross-sectional self-report data were collected in 2014 via tablet-based computerized assessments from a predominantly minority sample of 762 (404 females, Mage = 13.73 years, SDage =1.59) 6th, 8th, and 10th grade students recruited from public middle and high schools in Miami-Dade County, FL and Prince George’s County, MD. Students completed surveys on tablets in school settings regarding alcohol expectancies, expectancy valuations, externalizing problem behaviors, past 3-month binge drinking episodes, and experiences of alcohol-related negative consequences.Results:Zero-inflated negative binomial regressions indicated: (1) older adolescents were more likely to report binge drinking; and (2) a significant main effect for externalizing problem behaviors on binge use. Logistic regressions indicated (1) older adolescents were more likely to endorse an alcohol-related negative consequence and (2) the interaction between positive alcohol expectancies and externalizing behaviors was associated with endorsing an alcohol-related negative consequence.Conclusions:Engaging adolescents who exhibit serious externalizing behaviors and report positive alcohol expectancies via developmentally appropriate, tailored interventions is one feasible strategy to address escalation of binge alcohol use and related negative consequences among minority youth.

Impact on Brain due to Alcoholism using Improved Fuzzy C-Regression based Alcohol Detection

In general, two risk factors such as alcohol expectancy and impulsivity have been concerned with alcohol abuse Currently, many people have been addicted to alcoholism and have an Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) that affects neurons behavior in the human brain. Still, how such risk factors interrelate to estimate the alcoholism. To solve this problem, Fuzzy C-Regression based Alcoholism Detection (FCRAD) method has been proposed that segments the Region-Of-Interests (ROIs) from the human brain image to predict the Gray Matter Volume (GMV) reduction in the right posterior insula in women and the left thalamus in both men and women efficiently. However, it requires the detection of GMV reduction in the other brain image regions. This multi-modality can decrease the fuzziness of the partition and the crisp membership degrees were not derived easily. Therefore in this article, the GMV reduction in other regions of the brain images including right posterior insula in women and left thalamus in both men and women has been detected, an Improved FCRAD (IFCRAD) method is proposed to simplify the segmentation of the brain images by considering the second regularization term in the objective function of the FCR to take into account the noisy data. Also, the Euclidean distance is replaced with the Voronoi distance for computing different fuzzy membership functions. Moreover, new error measure and reward function are used in the objective function of the FCR to reward nearly crisp membership functions and to obtain more crisp partition. So, the brain images are segmented into gray-matter images that derive the ROIs to analyze the GMV reduction with less complexity. Finally, the experimental results illustrate the proposed IFCRAD method achieves higher accuracy than the existing AD methods.

Regulation of Craving and Negative Emotion in Alcohol Use Disorder

BackgroundAlcohol use disorder (AUD) is a chronic, relapsing condition with poor treatment outcomes. Both alcohol craving and negative affect increase alcohol drinking, and—in healthy adults—can be attenuated using cognitive strategies, which rely on the prefrontal cortex (PFC). However, AUD is associated with cognitive impairments and PFC disruptions. Thus, we tested whether individuals with AUD can successfully recruit the PFC to effectively regulate craving and negative emotions, whether neural mechanisms are shared between the two types of regulation, and whether individual differences influence regulation success. MethodsDuring functional magnetic resonance imaging, participants with AUD completed the regulation of craving task (n = 17) that compares a cue-induced craving condition with an instructed regulation condition. They also completed the emotion regulation task (n = 15) that compares a negative affect condition with an instructed regulation condition. Regulation strategies were drawn from cognitive behavioral therapy treatments for AUD. Self-reported craving and negative affect were collected on each trial. ResultsIndividuals with AUD effectively regulated their craving and negative affect when instructed to do so using cognitive behavioral therapy–based strategies. Regulation was associated with recruitment of both common and distinct PFC regions across tasks, as well as with reduced activity in regions associated with craving and negative affect (e.g., ventral striatum, amygdala). Effective regulation of craving was associated with negative alcohol expectancies. ConclusionsBoth common and distinct regulatory systems underlie regulation of craving and negative emotions in AUD, with notable individual differences. This has important implications for AUD treatment.

Impact on Brain due to Alcoholism using Improved Fuzzy C-Regression based Alcohol Detection

In general, two risk factors such as alcohol expectancy and impulsivity have been concerned with alcohol abuse Currently, many people have been addicted to alcoholism and have an Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) that affects neurons behavior in the human brain. Still, how such risk factors interrelate to estimate the alcoholism. To solve this problem, Fuzzy C-Regression based Alcoholism Detection (FCRAD) method has been proposed that segments the Region-Of-Interests (ROIs) from the human brain image to predict the Gray Matter Volume (GMV) reduction in the right posterior insula in women and the left thalamus in both men and women efficiently. However, it requires the detection of GMV reduction in the other brain image regions. This multi-modality can decrease the fuzziness of the partition and the crisp membership degrees were not derived easily. Therefore in this article, the GMV reduction in other regions of the brain images including right posterior insula in women and left thalamus in both men and women has been detected, an Improved FCRAD (IFCRAD) method is proposed to simplify the segmentation of the brain images by considering the second regularization term in the objective function of the FCR to take into account the noisy data. Also, the Euclidean distance is replaced with the Voronoi distance for computing different fuzzy membership functions. Moreover, new error measure and reward function are used in the objective function of the FCR to reward nearly crisp membership functions and to obtain more crisp partition. So, the brain images are segmented into gray-matter images that derive the ROIs to analyze the GMV reduction with less complexity. Finally, the experimental results illustrate the proposed IFCRAD method achieves higher accuracy than the existing AD methods.

Intervenção educativa e expectativas positivas sobre o uso do álcool entre estudantes


 
 
 
 Objetivou-se avaliar as expectativas positivas sobre o uso recente de álcool por estudantes de ensino Fundamental e Médio antes e após uma intervenção educativa e verificar diferenças na frequência de uso e nas informações sobre essa substância, segundo o sexo. Estudo quase-experimental, realizado com 231 estudantes. Foram utilizados: Formulário sociodemográfico; Inventário de Triagem do Uso de Drogas; Escala de Expectativas Positivas acerca do Álcool, aplicados antes e após 60 dias da intervenção. Foram realizadas análises estatísticas descritivas e inferenciais. A hipótese do estudo não foi confirmada. Para o grupo geral, não foram observadas mudanças significativas nas expectativas positivas sobre o álcool após a intervenção. A frequência de consumo se manteve elevada após a atividade, com destaque para o sexo feminino. Os resultados demonstraram que a intervenção educativa não foi efetiva para influenciar mudanças do uso do álcool, todavia, foi eficaz para a aquisição de informações sobre a substância.
 
 
 

Alcohol Expectancies Moderate the Association Between School Connectedness and Alcohol Consumption

In this study, we investigate the moderated association of school connectedness and alcohol expectancies with adolescent drinking. Two large community samples were obtained with 2 repeated attempted censuses of all students attending a large suburban school district. Participants completed a self-administered questionnaire that assessed substance use, alcohol expectancies, and school connectedness. We used logistic regression analyses on the training sample and confirmed with Bayesian test intervals with the test sample. Party related alcohol expectancies and school connectedness interacted in their explanatory association with recent drinking and binging, such that school connectedness had a protective association only for youth with lower positive expectancies. These findings were the result of pre-planned exploratory analysis, which were confirmed with out-of-sample test data. The potential benefits for student health behaviors resulting from improved school connectedness may be dependent on at least one dimension of alcohol expectancies, at the individual level.

Using future-oriented expectancy associates to probe real-time variations in motivation to consume alcohol.

An extensive empirical and theoretical literature has characterized anticipatory/expectancy processes as integral to motivation, including motivation to consume alcohol. To examine whether these processes could be probed on a moment to moment basis as they activate to motivate near term drinking, we sampled future-oriented expectancy verbal associates (i.e., self-generated words) using an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) paradigm every 3 hr on 3 days of the week (2 days of likely drinking and 1 of low drinking likelihood). Expectancy associates were chosen because cognitive psychologists consider verbal items collected in this manner a part-way approach to measurement of automatic/implicit processes. Consistent with predictions, more positively valenced alcohol expectancies activated within a few hours preceding increased alcohol consumption, and this activation could be statistically distinguished from the influence of a wide array of other variables known to predict consumption, including autocorrelation. As previously observed, more positively valenced alcohol expectancies were activated in alcohol-related environments. These findings provide further evidence that anticipatory information processing is engaged for the direction of future behavior, and that probing expectancies in real-time can be useful for predicting near-term alcohol consumption. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Predictors of Increases in Alcohol Problems and Alcohol Use Disorders in Offspring in the San Diego Prospective Study.

The 35-year-long San Diego Prospective Study documented 2-fold increases in alcohol problems and alcohol use disorders (AUDs) in young-adult drinking offspring compared to rates in their fathers, the original probands. The current analyses use the same interviews and questionnaires at about the same age in members of the 2 generations to explore multiple potential contributors to the generational differences in adverse alcohol outcomes. Using data from recent offspring interviews, multiple cross-generation differences in characteristics potentially related to alcohol problems were evaluated in 3 steps: first through direct comparisons across probands and offspring at about age 30; second by backward linear regression analyses of predictors of alcohol problems within each generation; and finally third through R-based bootstrapped linear regressions of differences in alcohol problems in randomly matched probands and offspring. The analyses across the analytical approaches revealed 3 consistent predictors of higher alcohol problems in the second generation. These included the following: (i) a more robust relationship to alcohol problems for offspring with a low level of response to alcohol; (ii) higher offspring values for alcohol expectancies; and (iii) higher offspring impulsivity. The availability of data across generations offered a unique perspective for studying characteristics that may have contributed to a general finding in the literature of substantial increases in alcohol problems and AUDs in recent generations. If replicated, these results could suggest approaches to be used by parents, healthcare workers, insurance companies, and industry in their efforts to mitigate the increasing rates of alcohol problems in younger generations.

An evaluation of alcohol sensitivity in the context of the acquired preparedness model

Background: The acquired preparedness model (APM) posits that relationships between impulsivity-related traits and alcohol use are partly mediated by the biased acquisition of positive alcohol expectancies. Additionally, alcohol administration studies implicate associations between impulsivity-related traits and sensitivity to acute alcohol effects, suggesting that impulsivity-expectancy associations could be partly explained by individual differences in alcohol response. The present study assessed a theoretical extension of the APM by testing the prediction that self-reported sensitivity to alcohol would partly mediate impulsivity-expectancy relationships, and that the addition of alcohol sensitivity variables would account for increased variance in drinking quantity and problems relative to the traditional APM.Method: Young adult heavy drinkers (N = 300, 53% women) completed the Alcohol Sensitivity Questionnaire, the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale, and measures of alcohol expectancies (Comprehensive Effects of Alcohol Questionnaire) and drinking quantity and related problems. Hypotheses were examined using path analysis.Results: Results supported significant indirect effects of sensation seeking on drinking quantity and problems via higher positive expectancies. Results also supported a significant indirect effect of negative urgency on drinking problems via negative expectancies. Although alcohol sensitivity variables showed unique associations with drinking outcomes, the addition of these variables did not improve model fit and hypothesized indirect paths involving impulsivity-related traits, alcohol sensitivity, and expectancies were not supported.Conclusions: Future research is necessary to reconcile these results with laboratory findings suggesting that impulsive traits are frequently associated with sensitivity to alcohol’s acute effects.

Acute alcohol exposure dose-dependently alleviates social avoidance in adolescent mice and inhibits social investigation in adult mice.

Motivations for alcohol consumption often focus on ethanol's purported prosocial effects: social enhancement and reduction of socially focused anxiety. Despite substantial research supporting prosocial effects, contrary research exists demonstrating alcohol-elicited antisocial and asocial behaviours. Additionally, evidence typically fails to delineate whether alcohol-induced prosocial effects are due to alcohol expectancies or pharmacological actions of ethanol. Studies exploring ethanol's pharmacological effects on social behaviour and factors that modulate apparent contradictory prosocial versus asocial effects are lacking. This study investigated whether factors of age, ethanol dose and social fear modulate ethanol-induced pharmacological effects on sociability and social anxiety-like avoidance. Experiments examined the acute effects of ethanol doses (0, 0.25, 0.8, 1.6g/kg; i.p.) in adult (10-week-old) and adolescent (PND 31-33) C57BL/6J male mice on social interaction using a social fear conditioning paradigm. Control experiments assessed whether ethanol-induced effects were social-specific. In adult mice, no specific effects of ethanol on social avoidance were observed at any dose. However, high-dose ethanol (1.6g/kg) suppressed social approach in all adult mice. In contrast, low-dose ethanol (0.25g/kg) alleviated social avoidance in adolescent mice and no social suppression was observed at higher ethanol doses. Thus, higher doses of ethanol impair social behaviour in adult mice, whereas lower doses specifically alleviate social anxiety-like avoidance in adolescent mice. Age, dose and social fear are critical modulators of acute ethanol-induced pharmacological effects on social behaviour. Inconsistencies in ethanol-induced social consequences appear at least partly mediated by pharmacological interactions-not solely alcohol expectancies.

Positive alcohol expectancies and injunctive drinking norms in drinking to cope motives and alcohol use among older adults

BackgroundStudies indicate older adults have increased risk for alcohol-related harms (e.g., risk for falls) that can manifest at lower levels of consumption than younger adults. Specifically, age-related changes in alcohol metabolism, physiology, increased morbidity, and potential interactions with medications to manage chronic conditions increases risk for related harms among older adults. PurposeThe present study used cross-sectional data to examine the associations between drinking to cope motives and positive alcohol expectancies, and injunctive drinking norms in older adults. We also explored the interaction between drinking to cope, positive expectancies and injunctive drinking norms on alcohol use. MethodsAdults aged 65 and older (N = 98) completed a series of measures assessing drinking to cope motives, positive alcohol expectancies, injunctive drinking norms, and past-month alcohol use. ResultsPositive alcohol expectancies were positively associated with drinking to cope motives. Drinking norms were not associated with coping motives. Moderating effects of expectancies varied on the link between coping motives and alcohol use. Greater endorsement of coping motives was associated with more alcohol consumption but only for those with low expectancies. ConclusionsBetter understanding of the complex interplay between drinking to cope motives, positive expectancies, and injunctive drinking norms of proximal as well as distal referents could foster improvement of clinical assessments to screen for risk factors of alcohol abuse and promote development of more age-salient measures of alcohol expectancies, norms, and motives.

Exposure to Parental Alcohol Use Rather Than Parental Drinking Shapes Offspring's Alcohol Expectancies.

Alcohol expectancies (AE), that is, the anticipated effects of alcohol, start developing early in childhood and are important predictors of alcohol use years later. Whereas previous research has demonstrated that parental drinking relates to children's AE, this study aims to test whether exposure to parental alcohol use mediates the link between parental alcohol use and positive and negative AE among children (6 to 8years) and early adolescents (12 to 15years). Longitudinal multi-informant family studies were conducted in the Netherlands among children (Study 1 (2015 to 2017): N=329; 48.9% boys; Mage =4.6) and adolescents (Study 2 [2015 to 2018]: N=755; 45.6% boys; Mage =11.3). Fathers' and mothers' alcohol use in terms of quantity and exposure (i.e., the frequency of alcohol use in 9 family-specific situations), and offspring's AE were collected using online questionnaires. Structural equation modeling conducted in the full sample and separately by gender revealed the following: For children, no associations were found in the full sample. However, gender-specific results indicated that fathers' exposure was associated with (and mediated) favorable AE. Among adolescents, fathers' exposure was associated with (and mediated) social and coping AE (both boys and girls) and enhancement AE (only boys). Contrastingly, neither mothers' alcohol use nor its exposure was associated with any AE. Although different associations were found by offspring's gender, strong evidence for gender differences was lacking. This study indicates that, for specific expectancies, exposure to fathers' alcohol use shapes offspring's cognitions about the effects of alcohol, rather than fathers' alcohol use in general. Prevention efforts could focus on lowering the degree to which fathers expose their drinking, which might be more easily changeable than drinking in general.