Social Achievement Goals and Alcohol Use Outcomes in a Network of College Students

Social achievement goals are individuals' orientations toward attaining competence in social situations. Social achievement goals have been linked to outcomes such as belongingness, loneliness, and bullying perpetration among college students. Given that college students consume alcohol for social reasons, it is possible that a person's orientation toward social competence could be related to their drinking. This research examined whether the dimensions of social achievement goal orientations predict alcohol-related outcomes.

Students (N = 1083; 57% female; M_age = 20.6 years) at one mid-sized, private university in the northeast assessments: one in the Fall (T1) and one in the Spring of their junior year (T2), in which they completed measures of social achievement goal orientation and alcohol use outcomes, with associations analyzed using network autocorrelation models.

T1 social demonstration-approach goals (i.e., need to gain popularity and receive positive evaluations from friends) was positively associated with T2 heavy drinking, maximum drinking, and alcohol-related consequences. T1 social development goals (i.e., an individual's desire to grow socially by building meaningful relationships and improving interpersonal competence) was negatively associated with T2 alcohol-related consequences. T1 social demonstration-avoidance goals was not associated with any T2 alcohol-related outcomes.

Individuals with high social demonstration-approach goals may be susceptible to peer influence and may be more likely to experience consequences when they drink; they could be targeted for interventions addressing social influence.