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Updated: May 24, 2026

The Motivation for Alcohol Reward: Predictors of Progressive-Ratio Intravenous Alcohol Self-Administration in Humans
Published on: April 28, 2022
The separate and interactive effects of drinking motives and social anxiety symptoms in predicting drinking outcomes
Elise M Clerkin1, Nancy Barnett
1Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, United States. Elise_Clerkin@brown.edu
Purpose:
Our goal was to test the separate and interactive effects of drinking motives and social anxiety symptoms in predicting drinking-related consumption and problems.
Methods:
Participants (N=730; 59.7% female) were undergraduate college students who completed measures of social anxiety symptoms, drinking motives, alcohol consumption, and drinking problems.
Results:
Greater social anxiety symptoms were significantly associated with less alcohol consumption, and there was some evidence that greater social anxiety symptoms were also associated with greater alcohol-relevant problems. Significant interactions between social anxiety and motives indicated that a) alcohol use was most pronounced for individuals high in enhancement motives and low in social anxiety symptoms; and b) among participants low in coping motives, drinking problems were greater for individuals high (vs. low) in social anxiety symptoms.
Conclusions:
More fully identifying the individual difference factors that link social anxiety symptoms with drinking outcomes is important for informing prevention and intervention approaches.
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