Eight-month predictive validity and covariance structure of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire for Adolescents (AEQ-A) for junior high school students

Research about the role of alcohol-related expectancies in the drinking behavior of young people has two crucial limitations: a paucity of longitudinal studies and questions about the construct validities of extant expectancy questionnaires. This study concerned the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire for Adolescents (AEQ-A) and its relation to drinking among grades 6.7 and 8 students. Objectives were (1) the evaluation of the concurrent and predictive validities of scales of the AEQ-A; and (2) study of the joint covariance structure of the AEQ-A with measures of alcohol use.

The AEQ-A and measures of drinking and related problems were administered twice within an 8-month period to 408 grades 6.7 and 8 public school students (mean age = 12.1 years; 50% boys; 98% white). All measures were administered in the schools as part of health classes.

In regression analyses only one AEQ-A scale-expectation of social enhancement- had clear concurrent and predictive validity. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that the entire AEQ-A seems to measure relatively distinct belief areas, but, again, only the social enhancement domain was related to drinking quantity-frequency.

Expectations of social benefit may be a risk factor for higher levels of drinking among junior high school students, but the relative importance of this belief over other possible factors remains to be studied.