EXPECTANCY FOR SOCIAL FACILITATION FROM DRINKING - THE DIVERGENT PATHS OF HIGH-EXPECTANCY AND LOW-EXPECTANCY ADOLESCENTS

Using a 3-wave longitudinal design, adolescents were studied over a 2- year period during which many first began to drink. Covariance structu re modeling showed that teens' expectancy for social facilitation from alcohol and their drinking experience influenced each other in a reci procal, positive feedback fashion: the greater the expectancy endorsem ent, the higher subsequent drinking levels, and the higher the drinkin g levels, the greater the subsequent expectancy endorsement. This mode l fit the data quite well; comparison models, in which expectancy (or drinking) had no independent influence on future drinking (or expectan cy), showed significantly poorer fit than the present model. Initial n ondrinkers' social expectancy predicted individual differences in the rate of drinking increase over the 2 years. Results bolster the hypoth esis that expectancy actively influences drinking and point to the imp ortance of expectancy-based intervention efforts.