Testing the specificity between social anxiety disorder and drinking motives

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Michael Windle, Emory University; Rebecca Windle, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2012-09
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2012.04.009
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Addictive Behaviors
• ISSN: 0306-4603
• Volume: 37
• Issue: 9
• Start Page: 1003
• End Page: 1008
• Grant/Funding Information: Funding for this study was provided by NIAAA Grant AA07861.
• Keywords: Social Anxiety Disorder; Drinking Motives; Young Adulthood; Adolescence
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Toxicology; Psychology, Behavioral; Sociology, General

Abstract

This study tested the specificity of the relationship between Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and coping drinking motives (versus enhancement drinking motives and social drinking motives) within the context of a range of potentially confounding variables measured during adolescence (e.g., quantity and frequency of alcohol use, coping drinking motives) and substantively important variables assessed during young adulthood (e.g., other anxiety disorders and Major Depressive Disorder). A sample of high school sophomores and juniors (n=717) completed measures of substance use and risk factors during adolescence and were then prospectively followed-up in early- and middle-young adulthood, and psychiatric diagnoses and drinking motives (i.e., coping, enhancement, social) were assessed each time. Findings indicated that SAD was specifically related to coping motives (measured during early-to-middle young adulthood) after controlling for the effects of a range of alcohol and mental health variables. In addition, adolescent variables predicted young adult drinking motives as did Major Depressive Disorder and other anxiety disorders. These findings are discussed within a conceptual framework of the functional role (e.g., self-medication) that drinking motives, and especially coping drinking motives, may play in the etiology of alcohol problems and disorders. Implications for prevention and treatment interventions are discussed.