The alcohol use inventory as predictor of drinking by male heavy social drinkers

To investigate the utility of the Alcohol Use Inventory (AUI) with heavy nonproblem drinkers, 36 male undergraduate heavy social drinkers kept daily records of their drinking and moods for 3 months and for 1 month at 6-7 months after completing several scales. Factor analysis of the AUI revealed five factors with this sample. Reporting adverse after-effects and other drug use was associated with greater daily drinking over the next 3 months and better moods, but not with intoxication per se. Reporting sustained daily drinking on the AUI was strongly predictive of a greater number of intoxicated days during the subsequent 2 months, and was also associated with more depression and anger over time. Reporting drinking in order to improve social, mental, and emotional functioning was unrelated to drinking rates, but was strongly related anxiety, depression, and anger over time. The Daily Quantity of Alcohol scale was unrelated to actual daily alcohol intake. A small social desirability response bias was found for several scales, but it had little effect on the above relationships. Thus, the AUI shows promise for use with heavy social drinkers and should be investigated further.