Social Anxiety and Heavy Situational Drinking: Coping and Conformity Motives as Multiple Mediators

Individuals with clinically elevated social anxiety are at greater risk for alcohol use disorder,
and the relation between social anxiety and drinking problems is at least partially accounted
for by drinking more in negative emotional (e.g., feeling sad or angry) and personal/intimate
(e.g., before sexual intercourse) situations. Identification of cognitive/motivational factors
related to drinking in these high-risk situations could inform the development of treatment
and prevention interventions for these high-risk drinkers. The current study examined the
mediating effect of drinking motives on the relationship between social anxiety and drinking
these high-risk situations amongst undergraduates (N = 232). Clinically elevated social
anxiety was associated with greater coping and conformity motives. Both coping and
conformity motives mediated the relation between social anxiety and heavier alcohol
consumption in negative emotional and personal/intimate contexts. Multiple mediation
analyses indicated that these motives work additively to mediate the social anxiety-drinking
situations relationship, such that that heavy situational drinking amongst undergraduates
with clinically elevated social anxiety can be jointly attributed to desire to cope with negative
affect and to avoid social scrutiny.