The differential role of alcohol expectancies and drinking refusal self-efficacy in problem and nonproblem drinkers.
OBJECTIVE
The present study aimed to examine the discriminatory ability of alcohol expectancies and drinking refusal self-efficacy and to identify the differential role of these constructs in social and problem drinkers.


METHODS
Drinkers (N = 276) were self-selected from general (n = 185) and clinical (n = 91) populations to complete a 40-minute questionnaire that asked about alcohol expectancies, drinking refusal self-efficacy, consumption, degree of dependence and demographics.


RESULTS
The results showed that in social drinkers both the expectancy and self-efficacy constructs were reliably able to discriminate between types of drinker. Expectancy was related to consumption in social drinkers, but did not appear to account for a significant proportion of the variance in problem drinkers.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings are discussed in terms of a two-process model of drinking behavior that suggests that expectancies operate differently in social and problem drinkers.
Oei
T P
TP
Department of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Fergusson
S
S
Lee
N K
NK
D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D019973:Alcohol-Related Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013695:Temperance / Q000523:psychology