Social Anxiety and Onset of Drinking in Early Adolescence

Abstract

The present study examines several types of social anxiety that may be associated with the onset of alcohol use in middle school students, and whether the relationship differs by sex and grade. Students in the seventh and eighth grades (N = 2,621) completed the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents and a measure of lifetime drinking via schoolwide surveys. Distinct aspects of social anxiety were associated with higher and lower rates of onset of alcohol use. A high level of fear of negative evaluation was associated with drinking initiation in boys and girls, while girls who reported no social anxiety or distress in new situations were more likely than other groups to have started drinking by early adolescence. Youths with either very low or very high levels of generalized anxiety had higher rates of drinking than youths with scores in between. These findings suggest that the relationship between social anxiety and initiation of alcohol use is complex and varies by type of anxiety symptomatology.

KEYWORDS:

• adolescent
• alcohol use
• social anxiety

Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by a National Research Service Award predoctoral fellowship (F31 AA 13461) and a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R01 AA 12171).

Notes

Notes. FNE = fear of negative evaluation; SAD-G = generalized social anxiety and distress; SAD-N = social anxiety and distress in new/unfamiliar situations; SAS-A = Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (composite score) from La Greca (1998). Means and percentages with different superscripts across rows are significantly different (range =p < .05–p < .001).

Notes. FNE = fear of negative evaluation; SAD-G = generalized social anxiety and distress; SAD-N = social anxiety and distress in new/unfamiliar situations. The overall model tests of the logistic regression analyses are as follows: FNE = (χ² [df = 34] = 252.99, p < .001); SAD-N = (χ² [df = 34] = 261.76, p < .001); SAD-G = (χ² [df = 34] = 260.93, p < .001).