Drinking Problems and Social Anxiety among Young Adults: The Roles of Drinking to Manage Negative and Positive Affect in Social Situations.

Background: Socially anxious individuals seem to be at a high risk for alcohol-related problems because they drink to cope. Yet social anxiety is unique among the anxiety conditions in that it is characterized by lower positive affect (PA). It is unclear whether drinking to cope is related to drinking to decrease negative affect (NA) or increase PA. Objectives: We tested whether social anxiety was related to more drinking problems via the sequential relations between affect (NA or PA), drinking to change affect (decrease NA or increase PA), and drinking quantity. We also tested whether the indirect effect of drinking to increase PA was significantly less than that of drinking to decrease NA. Methods: Past-month drinkers with clinically elevated social anxiety (n = 174) and those with more normative or lower social anxiety (n = 362) completed an online survey. Results: Social anxiety was indirectly related to drinking problems via the sequential effect of NA, drinking to decrease NA, and drinking quantity. Social anxiety was indirectly related to drinking problems via the sequential relations of PA and drinking quantity and of drinking to increase PA and drinking quantity. The indirect effect of drinking to increase PA did not significantly differ from drinking to decrease NA. Conclusions/Importance: Socially anxious drinkers may drink not only to decrease NA but also to increase PA in social situations. Both of these drinking motives appear to play important roles in socially anxious drinkers' experience of drinking-related problems.