Negative-reinforcement drinking motives mediate the relation between anxiety sensitivity and increased drinking behavior

We examined whether certain "risky" drinking motives mediate the previously established relation between elevated anxiety sensitivity (AS) and increas ed drinking behavior in college student drinkers (n = 109 women, 73 men). S pecifically, we administered the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI), Revised D rinking Motives Questionnaire, and a quantity-frequency measure of typical drinking levels. Participants were parceled according to high (n = 30), mod erate (n = 29), and low (n = 34) AS levels. As expected, high AS participan ts reported a higher typical weekly drinking frequency than the low and mod erate AS students regardless of gender. Similarly, high AS participants (pa rticularly high AS men) reported a higher yearly excessive drinking frequen cy than low AS students. Only the negative reinforcement motives of Coping and Conformity were found to independently mediate the relations between AS and increased drinking behavior in the total sample. High AS women's great er drinking behavior was largely explained by their elevated Coping Motives , while heightened Conformity Motives explained the increased drinking beha vior of high AS men. Finally, associations between AS and increased drinkin g behavior in university students were largely attributable to the "social concerns" component of the ASI. We discuss the observed relations with resp ect to the psychological functions of drinking behavior that may portend th e development of alcohol problems in young adult high AS men and women. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.