Sex-related alcohol expectancies among adolescents: II. Prediction of drinking in social and sexual situations.

Used a measure developed by K. H. Dermen and M. L. Cooper (see record 1995-07934-001) to test the relationship between sex-related alcohol expectancies and drinking in social and sexual situations among a representative sample of 874 sexually experienced adolescents (aged 13–19 yrs) who had ever consumed alcohol. Regression analyses (in which demographics and a global measure of drinking were controlled for) revealed that sex-related alcohol expectancies were better predictors of drinking in sexual situations than were general alcohol expectancies, whereas the reverse was true for drinking in social situations. Different expectancies predicted whether respondents drank in these situations as compared with the frequency of drinking to intoxication in the same situations. Results highlight the value of assessing domain-specific alcohol expectancies when predicting alcohol use in particular situations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent alcohol expectancies in relation to personal and parental drinking patterns.

Increased expectations of positive effects of alcohol have been associated with severity of drinking across a variety of abusing and nonabusing adult populations. Although alcohol expectancies have been examined among high school adolescents, no study has examined expectancies of identified adolescent abusers in treatment. This study investigated whether adolescent alcohol abusers in treatment expect significantly more reinforcement from alcohol than do nonabusing peers and whether expectancies vary as a function of exposure to parental alcohol abuse. The adolescent version of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (Christiansen, Goldman, & Inn, 1982) was completed by 116 abusing and nonabusing adolescents. Results indicate that adolescent alcohol abusers expect significantly more reinforcement from alcohol than do demographically comparable nonabusing peers. Adolescents with an alcohol-abusing parent reported expecting more cognitive and motor enhancement from drinking than did adolescents without a family history of abuse. Thus, both personal alcohol use and parental alcohol use are related to adolescent alcohol expectancies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do alcohol expectancies mediate drinking patterns of adults?

Compared the reinforcement expectancies of adult alcoholics with beliefs of 2 other adult populations. 171 participants (mean age 42.8 yrs) in alcohol treatment programs, 65 hospitalized medical patients (mean age 42.6 yrs), and 344 college students (mean age 24 yrs) identified their beliefs about the consequences of alcohol consumption through an alcohol expectancy questionnaire (AEQ). Results indicate that the previously defined AEQ beliefs among nonalcoholic populations identified by S. A. Brown et al (1980) and B. A. Christiansen et al (see record 1982-25609-001) are applicable to alcoholic populations. In the present study, nonalcoholics and alcoholics differed significantly in terms of their alcohol expectancies. In general, alcoholics were found to maintain strong alcohol expectancies, and expectancies increased across and within populations as a function of drinking patterns. Theoretical, research, and clinical implications of these findings and the AEQ are discussed. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using alcohol expectancies to predict adolescent drinking behavior after one year.

An accumulating literature has shown the influence of childhood experiences associated with alcohol use on later drinking practices. Recent studies have suggested that alcohol-related expectancy may serve as an intervening variable to connect these early experiences with the later, proximal decision to drink when opportunities for actual alcohol consumption arise. Those studies, however, have collected expectancy and drinking data concurrently, whereas the present study for the first time reports on the power of expectancies measured in early adolescents (seventh and eighth grades) to predict self-reported drinking onset and drinking behavior measured a full year later. Results show that five of seven expectancy scores readily discriminated between nonproblem drinkers and those subsequently beginning problem drinking and accounted for a large portion of the variance in a continuous quantity/frequency index and a problem drinking index. The strength of these time-lagged relations strengthens the case for inferring that expectancies have causal power on drinking behavior and suggests prevention strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived consequences and adolescent drinking: Nonlinear and interactive models of alcohol expectancies.

Nonlinear and interactive models of alcohol expectancies and drinking were investigated using survey data obtained from junior and senior high school students on 2 occasions 2 years apart. Significant nonlinear and interactive effects were found in cross-sectional analyses. First, negative expectancies were most predictive when subjective likelihood was low. Second, drinking was highest when respondents believed that (a) negative consequences were unlikely and affective enhancement was likely and (b) both affective enhancement and social facilitation were likely. A simpler linear model was adequate for predicting changes in drinking, with both negative and affective enhancement expectancies having significant longitudinal effects. The results support the importance of alcohol expectancies but suggest that the relationships between these beliefs and adolescent drinking may be complex. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of anxiety arousal on the consumption of alcohol by alcoholics and social drinkers.

Tested the hypothesis that the arousal of anxiety would lead to an increase in the alcoholic's consumption of alcohol. 20 male nonabstinent alcoholics and 20 male social drinkers were engaged in an alcohol taste rating task. High and low levels of state anxiety were induced by threatening Ss with either a painful or a nonpainful electric shock. Levels of trait anxiety were also assessed using the Neuroticism scale of the Eysenck Personality Inventory. Alcoholics consumed significantly more alcohol than social drinkers in the tasting task, but the amounts consumed by both groups were unrelated either to the anxiety manipulation factor or trait anxiety scores. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for anxiety-reduction models of alcoholism. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of alcohol on social anxiety in women: Cognitive versus physiological processes.

Randomly assigned 32 female social drinkers (18–25 yr old undergraduates) to 4 conditions in a 2?×?2 factorial design that controlled for drink content and expectations. Ss were administered either an alcoholic or a nonalcoholic beverage and were led to believe that their drinks contained or did not contain alcohol. After finishing their drinks Ss participated in a study of social anxiety in which they were requested to interact with a male confederate of the experimenter. Multiple measures, including heart rate, skin conductance, and overt behavioral and self-report responses, were recorded. Ss who expected alcohol showed significant elevations in physiological arousal and were rated as more anxious on observational measures of social behavior. Self-report measures failed to yield any differences among groups. Implications for the tension reduction theory of alcohol use and the importance of multiple response measures are discussed. (1? p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of alcohol and expectancies on verbal aggression in men and women.

In Exp I, 48 male and 48 female heavy social-drinking undergraduates were assigned to beverage (vodka [.75 ml/kg] and tonic or only tonic) and beverage-expectancy (alcohol or tonic) conditions. Ss were provoked by a confederate's unfavorable evaluation and allowed to retaliate. In Exp II, Exp I was repeated using 44 males and 45 females and higher doses of ethanol (1.12 and 1.10 ml/kg, respectively, for males and females). In Exp III, an experimenter criticized 62 male drinkers (.9 ml/kg ethanol) who later evaluated the experimenter's job performance on a questionnaire for his employer. Results show that for Ss at higher doses and males at the lower dose, those expecting alcohol were significantly less aggressive and at higher doses felt happier than did Ss expecting only tonic. Actual alcohol consumption increased aggression only for females at the lower doses. It is concluded that alcohol by its pharmacologic action alone does not necessarily increase aggression at either a low or a moderately high dose. It is suggested that many of the reinforcements of alcohol use are due to the drinkers' cognition rather than the pharmacologic action of alcohol itself. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive alcohol expectancies and drinking behavior: The influence of expectancy strength and memory accessibility.

College student drinkers (N ?=?314) participated in a health survey in which they (a) completed an alcohol-related memory association task (expectancy accessibility measure), (b) rated their positive expectancies about alcohol use (expectancy strength measure), and (c) reported their level of alcohol involvement. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that both expectancy accessibility and expectancy strength predicted frequency of alcohol use and alcohol-related problems. Moreover, moderational analyses showed that the association between expectancy strength and frequency of alcohol use was greater for those who generated more alcohol responses on the expectancy association task. These findings, suggest that the outcome association measure and Likert scale ratings of expectancies may assess distinct properties of expectancy representations, which may have independent and interactive effects on different aspects of drinking behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

College student employment and drinking: A daily study of work stressors, alcohol expectancies, and alcohol consumption.

We examined the within-person relationships between daily work stressors and alcohol consumption over 14 consecutive days in a sample of 106 employed college students. Using a tension reduction theoretical framework, we predicted that exposure to work stressors would increase alcohol consumption by employed college students, particularly for men and those with stronger daily expectancies about the tension reducing properties of alcohol. After controlling for day of the week, we found that hours worked were positively related to number of drinks consumed. Workload was unrelated to alcohol consumption, and work-school conflict was negatively related to consumption, particularly when students expressed strong beliefs in the tension reducing properties of alcohol. There was no evidence that the effects of work stressors were moderated by sex. The results illustrate that employment during the academic year plays a significant role in college student drinking and suggest that the employment context may be an appropriate intervention site to address the problem of student drinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of outcome expectancies and disinhibition on ad lib alcohol consumption

CD95 ligand (CD95L) potently induces apoptosis by activating CD95 on target cells. It has recently been reported that melanoma cells in vivo express a significant amount of CD95L, thereby being immediately able to kill CD95-bearing immunocompetent cells specific for cancer antigens, which infiltrate the lesions. In this study, we employed immunohistochemistry using an antibody directed against CD95L to investigate at which stage the melanoma CD95L expression is turned on. Skin biopsies of 49 lesions from 46 patients were assessed. These included benign and dysplastic naevi, melanoma in situ, stage I melanomas (Clark's level 2 or 3), advance-phase melanomas (Clark's level 4 or 5) and lymph node metastases. CD95L was expressed in all of the advance-phase melanomas as well as lymph node metastases of cutaneous origin, whereas neither melanoma in situ, benign naevi nor dysplastic naevi reacted positively with the antibody. To investigate a link between positivity and tumour size, the data were analysed on the basis of Breslow thickness, and indicated that expression was observed only when tumours were thicker than 0.75 mm. We next compared expression of CD95L and HMB-45. CD95L was positive only in melanomas in a more advanced phase than stage I, whereas HMB-45 was not only expressed in melanoma cells but also in benign pigmented naevi. This indicated the advantage of CD95L staining to diagnose melanoma. The present study indicates the significant correlation between tumorigenicity and expression of CD95L, and thereby raises the possibility that CD95L may be a useful diagnostic marker for malignant melanomas.     

Loneliness, social drinking, and vulnerability to alcohol problems.

Investigated the relationship between dispositional loneliness (representing deficient social skills, absence of supportive social relationships, and negative introspection), vulnerability to alcohol problems, and locus of control. 99 Ss (mean age 26.12 yrs) completed the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale (UCLA) measures of drinking and locus of control (i.e., fatalism, self-control, social system control). UCLA scores were strongly related to adverse consequences of drinking, perceived problem-drinker status, and coping functions. Both loneliness and alcohol problems were related to external locus of control over personal consequences and impulses. Loneliness is discussed as a source of differential vulnerability to alcohol problems among relatively heavy drinkers due to a lack of social supports and different perceptions of social pressures. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping, expectancies, and alcohol abuse: A test of social learning formulations.

The model proposed here postulates that alcohol abuse can be predicted from a causal chain that includes alcohol consumption and "drinking to cope" as proximal determinants and general coping skills and positive alcohol expectancies as more distal determinants. To evaluate this model in a way that permits simultaneous consideration of its multiple determinants and control for demographic influences, path analytic techniques were applied to data from problem and nonproblem drinkers drawn from a general population sample. The hypothesized model accounted for significant variance in abuse status. Drinking to cope emerged as the most powerful predictor, exerting influence via direct and indirect pathways. Coping styles indicative of avoidance of emotion emerged as more important predictors of abuse than problem-focused coping. The predictive value of coping was moderated by alcohol expectancies such that avoidant styles of coping with emotion were predictive of abuse status only among drinkers expressing greater belief in alcohol's positive reinforcing properties. Findings both support and refine the social learning perspective on alcohol abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring adolescent alcohol outcome expectancies.

The psychometric properties and construct validity of the Comprehensive Effects of Alcohol (CEOA) questionnaire were compared with those of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire—Adolescent version (AEQ-A) in relation to adolescent alcohol consumption. Ss were aged 13–17 yrs. Both measures of adolescent alcohol expectancies were found to be internally reliable and temporally stable. Alcohol use was significantly associated with subjective evaluations for Cognitive and Behavioral Impairment and Self-Perception on the CEOA and with expected effects for Cognitive and Motor Impairment and Changes in Social Behavior on the AEQ-A. Compared with the AEQ-A, the CEOA explained more variance in quantity (28%) and a similar variance in frequency (15%) for adolescent alcohol use (AEQ-A quantity = 20%, frequency = 15%). Whereas the general content and psychometric properties of the 2 measures are markedly similar, the Likert response format, shorter length, and assessment of both expected effects and subjective evaluations with the CEOA may offer measurement advantages over the AEQ-A. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of alcohol priming on social disinhibition.

Recent studies have suggested that exposure to rudimentary alcohol cues activates mental representations of alcohol expectancies in long-term memory, thereby promoting expectancy-consistent behavior changes. However, reliance in these previous studies on self-report measures raises the possibility that prior findings were an artifact of experimental demand. The present study was aimed at ruling out this alternative explanation by reinvestigating the effects of alcohol priming on nonconsumptive behavior using an implicit measure of social disinhibition. In three experiments, participants were exposed to either alcohol or control beverage images, then asked to type as quickly as possible the first word that came to mind in response to a series of provocative (e.g., feces) and neutral (e.g., chair) stimulus words. Participants’ response times were surreptitiously measured. Results revealed that participants exposed to images of alcohol, relative to control beverages, were faster to generate free associations to provocative, but not neutral, words, suggesting enhanced social disinhibition. This effect was limited to conditions of heightened evaluation, ruling out alternative explanations based on knowledge activation or arousal. Participants reported no suspicions regarding the connection between the image viewing and free association tasks nor any awareness that their response times had been collected. Results suggest that the behavioral effects of alcohol priming do not result from demand characteristics and offer the first evidence that exposure to rudimentary alcohol-related stimuli may suffice to influence social disinhibition in a manner akin to that expected to result from actual or placebo alcohol consumption. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of alcohol intoxication on social inferences.

The theory of "alcohol myopia" (C. M. Steele & R. A. Josephs, 1990) suggests that an intoxicated person is disproportionately influenced by immediate, superficial aspects of experience and that effortful, controlled cognitive processing is impaired. The present research examined the effects of alcohol intoxication on social inferences, which refer to perceived reasons, causes, and explanations of events. When asked to focus on the dispositions of others, intoxicated participants tended to exaggerate the extent to which dispositions were influencing behaviors. When asked to focus on the situational conditions in which a behavior took place, intoxicated participants tended to exaggerate the importance of situational influences. The results are consistent with both recent models of social inference and the theory of alcohol myopia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interactive effects of alcohol outcome expectancies and alcohol cues on nonconsumptive behavior.

Experimental research and popular belief suggest that, among its many effects, alcohol consumption reduces tension and facilitates aggression. Such observations could result from direct, pharmacological effects of alcohol on neural control of behavior but also may be accounted for by positing that drinking behavior activates mental representations of relaxation-related or aggression-related alcohol expectancies in long-term memory. Building on this latter view, in 2 experiments, the authors investigated whether rudimentary drinking-related cues, which presumably activate encoded alcohol expectancies, facilitate tension reduction and hostility in the complete absence of actual or placebo alcohol consumption. In Experiment 1, following contextual exposure to alcohol-related words, individuals with stronger expectancies that drinking reduces tension showed an increased willingness to meet with an opposite-gender stranger under relatively anxiety-provoking circumstances, suggesting that they experienced less apprehension regarding the meeting. Analogously, in Experiment 2, following near-subliminal exposure to alcohol-related words, individuals with stronger expectancies that drinking fosters aggression showed greater hostility toward a target person following an experimentally engineered provocation. Neither of the latter effects was obtained following exposure to nonalcoholic beverage words, which presumably did not activate alcohol outcome expectancy representations in long-term memory. Moreover, the strength of relevant, content-specific expectancies (i.e., for tension reduction or aggression, respectively) moderated alcohol cue exposure effects, but the strength of other expectancies (e.g., for sociability or sexual arousal) did not. Together, these findings demonstrate that exposure to rudimentary alcohol cues independently engenders expectancy-consistent behavior, thereby attesting to the remarkable breadth and subtlety of the behavioral impact of alcohol expectancy activation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship among social and intrapersonal risk, alcohol expectancies, and alcohol usage among early adolescents

We evaluated 3 patients with biopsy-proven hypertrophic cranial pachymeningitis apparently unrelated to any systemic disease. Each patient had chronic headache, cranial neuropathy, an elevated ESR, and a mild CSF pleocytosis. Neuro-ophthalmic findings included bilateral sixth nerve palsies in two patients and the third had bilateral optic neuropathies. MR imaging revealed thickened dura that enhanced with Gd-DTPA administration. Histologic examination showed thickened, fibrotic dura with a sterile, chronic, nongranulomatous inflammation. The response to treatment was variable with corticosteroids, immunosuppressive drugs, or radiation. The distinctive MR appearance should help physicians recognize this rarely reported disease.     

Perceived exposure to peer and adult drinking as predictors of growth in positive alcohol expectancies during adolescence.

This study investigated the effects of change in exposure to peer and adult drinking on changes in positive alcohol expectancies during adolescence. Covariance and mean structure analysis were used to model change in the predictors and in alcohol expectancies in a sample of southern California schoolchildren followed from Grades 5 to 10 (N?=?3,580). The sample was gender balanced and was predominantly White (51 %) and Hispanic (28%). Exposure to peer drinking and rate of change in exposure to peer and adult drinking were found to predict the rate of change in alcohol expectancies. These effects were particularly strong between Grades 5 and 7, suggesting the need for early intervention aimed to prevent the increase in positive alcohol expectancies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluations of alcohol expectancies: Do they add to prediction of drinking patterns?

288 adults and 265 university students responded to a questionnaire concerning beliefs about the effects of alcohol, which included a measure of evaluation of alcohol effects. Analyses were performed with measures of frequency of drinking episodes, usual quantity consumed/episode, frequency of intoxication and consumption of 8 or more drinks at one sitting, and estimated number of drinks per year. Evaluation of the undesirable consequences of drinking added significantly to the prediction of quantity-based drinking variables. It is suggested that perceived desirability of alcohol effects is an important factor in understanding the relationship of expectancies to drinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)