Alcohol expectancies and changes in beer consumption of first-year college students

The present study used a prospective design to evaluate the relationship between alcohol expectancies and the progression of beer consumption of first-year college students over a 2-month period. One hundred and fifty-four first-year undergraduate students completed the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (AEQ; Brown, Goldman, Inn, & Anderson, 1980) and a measure of precollege drinking during their first week of college, and completed a retrospective diary account of alcohol consumption also during the first week and at 1-month and 2-month follow-up. Beer was consumed considerably more frequently than other alcoholic beverages and was used as the dependent measure. The results showed that each AEQ subscale was positively correlated with beer consumption at almost all time points, and the magnitude of these correlations was generally higher for male subjects. Furthermore, the expectancies that alcohol increases social assertiveness and that alcohol is associated with global, positive changes were positively correlated with increases in beer consumption from Session 1 to Session 2 and from Session 1 to Session 3 for male, but not female, subjects. The findings extend previous research by demonstrating that certain alcohol expectancies are related to progressive increases over time in the amount of beer consumed.