Alcohol Use and Compulsive Sexual Behaviors in College Students: The Moderating Effect of Alcohol-Related Sexual Expectancies

Abstract

Compulsive sexual behaviors (CSB) and alcohol use are prevalent among college students. Alcohol use frequently co-occurs with CSB; however, further examination of risk factors of co-occurring alcohol use and CSB is needed. We examined the moderating effect of alcohol-related sexual expectancies, specifically sexual drive and affect expectancies, on the association between alcohol use/problems and CSB among 308 college students from a large university in the southeastern United States. Alcohol use/problems and CSB had a positive significant relationship among college students high in sexual drive expectancies and high and average in sexual affect expectancies. These findings suggest that alcohol- related sexual expectancies may be a risk factor for alcohol-related CSB.

Acknowledgments

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIAAA or the National Institutes of Health.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) including F31AA028150 awarded to the first author and T32AA007477 supporting the second author.