Understanding the relation between expectancies and drinking among DUI offenders using expectancy categories

In the context of several recent studies that have found negative expectancies to predict drinking-related variables, the present study was designed to examine the relationships among positive expectancies, negative expectancies and drinking, in a sample of DUI offenders.

Participants (N = 96; 75% male) recruited from a 3-day residential alcohol education program completed a demographic data sheet, the Negative Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (NAEQ), the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (AEQ) and the Customary Drinking Record upon admission to treatment. At a 3-month follow-up assessment, these measures were re-administered to 49% of the sample.

Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that both positive and negative expectancies were related to number of drinks in the previous 30 days. Stepwise multiple regression revealed that baseline drinking and negative expectancies were both related to number of drinking days at the 3-month follow-up assessment. To assess the interplay of positive and negative expectancies as they relate to drinking, participants were categorized as "low" or "high" on both the AEQ and the NAEQ. The low positive/low negative group drank more than the low positive/high negative group. There was no statistically significant difference in drinking between the high positive/low negative and the high positive/high negative group.

This study provides additional evidence that negative alcohol expectancies are related to drinking. These findings suggest that the proposed restraining influence of negative expectancies on drinking may be reduced when a drinker has concurrent positive expectancies which are high.