Friends or Foes: Social Anxiety, Peer Affiliation, and Drinking in Middle School

Abstract

Objective:The relation between social anxiety and alcohol consumption suggests aspects of both risk and protection, but most research has focused on late adolescents and emerging adults. Method: We investigated the synergistic impact of social anxiety, a need for affi liation with others, and perceived peer alcohol use on drinking in a sample of more than 1,500 early adolescents from southern California (48% girls). Via school-wide surveys, middle school students completed the Social Anxiety Scale for Children-Revised, a modifi ed version of the Interpersonal Orientation Scale, as well as measures of perceived peer drinking and self-reported lifetime and current drinking. Results: For socially anxious youths, high levels of perceived peer use in conjunction with high levels of affi liation need was associated with greater alcohol use on average and more frequent episodic drinking. Specifi c to heavy episodic drinking, the interaction of social anxiety and perceived peer drinking seemed to affect girls and boys differentially. Sex differences emerged for the moderation of social anxiety's infl uence on drinking initiation by perceived peer infl uence. Conclusions: These fi ndings suggest that alcohol-related risks associated with social anxiety might be gender specifi c and more important in earlier stages of alcohol use than previously believed. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 72, 61-69, 2011)

Cannabis Use Behaviors and Social Anxiety: The Roles of Perceived Descriptive and Injunctive Social Norms

“…Although two studies found more frequent cannabis use to be related to social anxiety among adolescents and undergraduate men (Anderson et al, 2011;Oyefeso, 1991), this relationship was reduced to nonsignifi cance once other relevant psychosocial variables were considered (Anderson et al, 2011). In one study, moderate (but not high) levels of social anxiety were related to a greater likelihood of becoming a regular cannabis user among adolescent boys (Griffi n et al, 2002), and several studies found social anxiety to be unrelated to frequency of cannabis use among undergraduates (e.g., Buckner et al, 2007.…”

Moderators of the association between peer and target adolescent substance use

“…Only two studies suggested that peer association may be greater in male as opposed to female adolescents who associate with delinquent and substance-using peers, as reported by teachers (Mrug & Windle, 2009) or the targets (Clark, Belgrave & Abell, 2012), and one study suggested that peer association may be greater in female adolescents associating with peers that use alcohol (Anderson, et al, 2011). In this last study though, a significant three-way interaction between gender, anxiety and peer association was found: highly anxious boys who had alcohol using friends reported the highest binge drinking rates in the last month.…”

“…In one study, Anderson and colleagues (2011) found that the association between peer and target alcohol use was greatest when the target had a strong need for affiliation (i.e., shown in a three-way interaction, indicating that alcohol use was highest in target adolescents that had alcohol-using peers and a strong need for affiliation, but only when they were also socially anxious; Anderson, Tomlinson, Robinson, & Brown, 2011). In another study, Epstein and Botvin (2002) found the link between friends alcohol use and target's drinking quantity and frequency to be moderated by target's risk taking.…”

Early Adolescent Symptoms of Social Phobia Prospectively Predict Alcohol Use

“…For example, among seventh and eighth graders, fear of negative evaluation was associated with an increased likelihood of early drinking initiation among both boys and girls, whereas lower levels of social anxiety/distress in novel social situations was related to increased risk for drinking initiation among girls (Tomlinson et al, 2013). Similarly, Anderson et al (2011) demonstrated that SP symptoms and need for affi liation interacted, such that greater need for affi liation and greater SP symptoms were most strongly associated with alcohol use when peers were consuming alcohol. Finally, the only longitudinal study of these relationships indicated that SP symptoms (social fears) assessed at age 18 conveyed elevated risk for heavy drinking, alcohol use, and alcohol dependence at follow-up 12-15 years later (Crum and Pratt, 2001).…”

“…Social phobia (SP) and subthreshold SP symptoms have been implicated as risk factors for early alcohol use in childhood and adolescence (e.g., Anderson et al, 2011;Blumenthal et al, 2010;Tomlinson et al, 2013). From a developmental perspective, the transition from childhood to adolescence is an important period characterized by signifi cant changes in school and peer relationships (Windle et al, 2008), which are potential sources of stress and anxiety for susceptible youth.…”