Is facial emotion recognition deficit a predictor of riskyalcohol use in young adults?

Social cognition skills, such as emotional processing, empathy, and mental state attribution, are critical for regulating behavior and decision-making, including alcohol consumption. However, there is no consensus on whether cognitive deficits are a risk factor for or a consequence of alcohol use disorders. Most studies on this issue have been conducted with people aged X 40 years with a long drinking history. This study investigated the associations between social cognition skills and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores in young adults and considered the influence of the onset of alcohol and drinking patterns.

A total of 112 volunteers aged 18-25 years completed AUDIT and online questionnaires about their drinking history and sociodemographic characteristics. Participants completed online tasks to assess facial emotion recognition, empathic abilities, and theory of mind.

A significant negative association was found between AUDIT scores and facial emotion recognition performance (p = 0.040). Path analysis revealed that earlier onset of alcohol use was associated with higher AUDIT scores (p < 0.001), which predicted poorer performance on facial emotion recognition tasks (p = 0.010).

These findings support the hypothesis that higher AUDIT scores and early onset of consumption are associated with lower accuracy in recognizing facial emotions among young adults.