Drinking and Thinking: Alcohol Effects on Post-event Processing in Socially Anxious Individuals

Social anxiety and vulnerability for problematic drinking in college students: the moderating role of post-event processing

“…which of the nine undergraduates was assigned as the confederate) was only associated with urge to drink alcohol immediately after the task and was therefore included as a control variable in the moderation analysis including this dependent variable. Despite Battista and colleagues' findings about sex effects in the relationship between social anxiety, PEP, and drinking (Battista et al, 2014), participant sex was not significantly associated with any dependent variables and was therefore not included as a covariate in further analyses. Social anxiety was positively associated with motives for drinking to cope with anxiety and depression during the follow-up week.…”

“…Further, our sample was predominately female and underpowered to test whether sex differences moderated the observed findings. Given that previous studies have documented sex differences in the relations between social anxiety, drinking, and PEP (Battista et al, 2014), future studies should include more men and examine the moderating role of sex. Additionally, given the retrospective nature of the follow-up questions regarding drinking motives, it is unclear how drinking related to particular motives was distributed and condensed (if at all) during the course of the follow-up period.…”

“…Consistent with previous studies using laboratory interactions as social stressors (e.g. Battista et al, 2014), participants were paired with a confederate of the opposite sex. Confederates were blinded to participants' social anxiety status and PEP manipulation condition.…”

“…First, they found that, among a large sample of college students, greater self-reported drinking quantity at a social event was positively associated with greater levels of PEP a few days later, above and beyond the effects of social anxiety and depressive symptoms (Battista & Kocovski, 2010). Next, they examined if the association between drinking and PEP differed for male and female college students and found that socially anxious women who drank more alcohol during social interactions engaged in less PEP afterwards, whereas for men, drinking during social interactions was associated with increased PEP following the interaction (Battista, Pencer, & Stewart, 2014). To our knowledge, no published studies have examined whether PEP is related to drinking outcomes following a social event, but the association between alcohol use and PEP may work both ways.…”

Alcohol-induced risky sexual behavior among socially anxious drinkers

“…PEP engagement following negatively perceived sexual experiences may be one suspected reason why HSA drinkers report more regretful or unwanted sexual experiences because in the absence of alcohol, such experiences would have be avoided. Further, alcohol consumption reduces PEP among socially anxious women (Battista, Pencer, & Stewart, 2014). Therefore, highly socially anxious women who engage in heavy coping motivated drinking may drink heavily to decrease PEP following sexual/intimate experiences in addition to decreasing anxiety during the experience.…”