Sex-Related Alcohol Expectancies Among Adolescents: II. Prediction of Drinking in Social and Sexual Situations

The relationship between sex-related alcohol expectancies and drinking in social and sexual situations was tested in a representative sample of 874 sexually experienced adolescents (13 to 19 years) who had ever consumed alcohol. Regression analyses (in which demographics and a global measure of drinking were controlled for) revealed that sex-related alcohol expectancies were better predictors of drinking in sexual situations than general alcohol expectancies, whereas the reverse was true for drinking in social situations. Different expectancies predicted whether respondents drank in these situations as compared with the frequency of drinking to intoxication in the same situations. Results highlight the value of assessing domain-specific alcohol expectancies when predicting alcohol use in particular situations.