Coping Responses and Alcohol Outcome Expectancies in Alcohol Abusing and Nonabusing Social Phobics

This study examined coping responses and alcohol outcome expectancies in alcohol abusing and nonabusing social phobics. The sample consisted of social phobics with current alcohol abuse or dependence (SPAs, n = 19), social phobics without lifetime alcohol use disorders (SPs, n = 19), and normal controls (NCs, n = 21). As predicted, SPs reported less problem-focused coping than did NCs in nonalcohol social situations and rated themselves as less skillful in interpersonal role-plays. However, observers did not rate SPs as less skillful than NCs in these role-plays. Consistent with the predicted situation-specific effects, SPAs reported less problem-focused coping than did SPs during alcohol-accessible social situations, but not during alcohol-inaccessible social situations. However, observer-rated and self-report results from role-plays of high-risk alcohol situations did not show the predicted lower drink refusal skills among SPAs compared to SPs. SPAs reported higher positive alcohol expectancies of tension reduction than did SPs but did not differ in negative alcohol expectancies of cognitive and behavioral impairment. These results are in several ways consistent with cognitive and social-learning theories of social phobia and alcohol abuse.