Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

The current research is aimed at investigating the relationship between social anxiety and positive alcohol expectancies. Negative or conflicted interpersonal relationships between individuals have the role of potentially influencing the link between social anxiety and alcohol expectancies. Social anxiety is defined as experiencing anxiety is social situations. Alcohol expectancies are defined as positive or negative expectations about the effects of alcohol. Having social anxiety makes it more likely an individual will engage in problematic alcohol use. Research suggests that individuals who are socially anxious are more likely to make positive alcohol expectancies for its tension reducing effects and therefore are more likely to drink. This link between social anxiety and implicit alcohol expectancies has not been examined, but are an important health concern. Thus, it is important to examine this risk pathway in a young adult, non-clinical sample, where social anxiety and drinking behaviours may presage development of lifelong problems. 150 university undergraduate participants from Concordia University will take part in the study. Questionnaire measures assessing social anxiety (The Social Interaction Anxiety Scale) and interpersonal relationships (the Daily Interpersonal Events Questionnaire) will be completed by individuals. Implicit alcohol expectancies will be measured using the Implicit Association Test, which is a computer task that measures speed of responses for associations. Individuals high on social anxiety are expected to be more likely to have positive alcohol expectancies (tension reduction alcohol expectancies) when interpersonal relationships are negative. On the other hand, high social anxiety will be associated with negative alcohol expectancies when interpersonal relationships are positive. Interpersonal relationships will likely also influence the relationship between social anxiety and alcohol expectancies.