Traumatic Event Exposure and Alcohol Use Expectancies among Adolescents

Abstract

Extant work suggests that trauma-exposed adolescents are at risk for problematic drinking. Although work conducted with adults suggests that trauma-exposed individuals drink to reduce negative affectivity, no work has yet examined alcohol use outcome expectancies (AOEs) among trauma-exposed adolescents. The current study examined positive AOEs as a function of trauma history among 63 community-recruited youths (M_age = 15.92; 46% girls). Findings indicated that trauma exposure predicted elevated tension-reduction AOEs. Furthermore, the indirect effect of tension-reduction expectancies accounted for a significant proportion of the relation between trauma exposure and alcohol use frequency. These preliminary data are discussed in terms of future research efforts.

Keywords::

• adolescent development
• alcohol use outcome expectancies
• trauma