Do Drinking Motives and Drinking Contexts Mediate the Relationship Between Social Avoidance and Alcohol Problems? Evidence from Two Studies of Undergraduate Drinkers

Research suggests drinking motives and drinking context mediate the relation between social anxiety and alcohol problems. Study 1 examined coping with anxiety motives (CAM) and coping with depression motives (CDM) as distinct mediators in a self-report cross-sectional study of 263 undergraduate drinkers. CDM mediated the relation between social avoidance and alcohol problems (indirect effect = 0.07). Study 2 included drinking contexts and motives as mediators in a single model and included an additional coping with social anxiety drinking motive (CSAM) mediator in a self-report cross-sectional study of 189 undergraduate drinkers. Undergraduates with high levels of social avoidance drank for both CDM and CSAM, which in turn predicted heavy drinking in risky contexts (indirect effects = 0.09–0.16); however, drinking motives, rather than risky contexts, largely mediated the relation of social avoidance to alcohol problems (indirect effects = 0.08–0.14). Taken together, these results suggest that CDM and CSAM independently mediate the relationship between social avoidance and alcohol problems and might serve as useful intervention targets.